Hillary Clinton champions LGBT community in first campaign speech

Hillary Clinton has stood up for the LGBT community, in the first speech of her campaign for the US presidency. The former Secretary of State was speaking on Roosevelt Island in New York City, where she laid out her plans and priorities for a term in the White House.

Speaking on her commitment to equality, Clinton said, “We should ban discrimination against LGBT Americans and their families so they can live, learn, marry, and work just like everybody else.” She added that, “America’s diversity, our openness, our devotion to human rights and freedom is what’s drawn so many to our shores.  What’s inspired people all over the world.”

As she has done in the past, Clinton put her desire for gender equality on par with her wish for LGBT equality. She praised the business leaders, “who want higher pay for employees, equal pay for women and no discrimination against the LGBT community either.”

Outlining a litany of things her Republican rivals turn their backs on, including health care reform, immigrants, and global warming, she said, “And they turn their backs on gay people who love each other,” to warm applause from her assembled audience.

Clinton has made LGBT issues a high priority for this campaign, at a time when marriage equality is becoming an increasingly likely prospect nationally in the US – including a soon to be married same-sex couple in her campaign launch video. She has long spoken up in support for gay rights, memorably during her 2011 speech to the United Nations, when she declared that “gay rights are human rights and human rights are gay rights.”

[youtube height=”HEIGHT” width=”WIDTH”]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgGPMrLHRy0[/youtube]

Clinton has yet to face a serious contender from within her own Democratic party for the presidential campaign, but a host of Republicans are battling it out to take her on, including Jeb Bush, Rand Paul and Rick Santorum.