CNN announced on Thursday that it will partner with the Human Rights Campaign to hold a town hall with the 2020 Democratic candidates on LGBTQ+ issues.
Candidates who meet the requirements to participate in the primary debates on October 15 and 16 will be invited to the town hall, which is scheduled for October 10.
CNN reported that out of the candidates who qualify, so far Joe Biden, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Julián Castro, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) have accepted the invitation to the town hall.
HRC president Alphonso David said in a statement that the event comes at a “critical time” during the Trump era, citing rising hate crimes against the LGBTQ+ community, particularly against trans women of color.
“Although the federal government should be protecting all residents, the Trump-Pence Administration is directly attacking our community by banning transgender troops from serving our country openly, undermining health care services for people living with HIV, and seeking to erase LGBTQ people from protections under law,” said David.
Tried to watch last night’s climate town hall, but CNN kept behind a paywall so I only got a 10-minute slice.
I wonder if they’ll do that with all the town halls. Or just climate, because climate action poses the greatest and most direct threat to corporate profits.
So let me ask this:
Can there, PLEASE, be a question related to corruption in high places and how the candidates might confront it, if elected? Climate change is important, as continuing to ignore it may destroy the country in 30 - 50 years. Ignoring corruption ignores the fact that it may destroy the country in 30 - 50 weeks.
If CNN partnered with the American Psychiatric Association for a town hall with the 2020 Democratic candidates to address Trump’s mental illness, I would totally watch that.
I’m sorry, but I don’t understand why this is the least bit necessary. I’m queer, but I don’t need my queerness pandered to in order to get my vote – I assume that the Democratic candidate is going to do the right thing on queer rights absent contrary information (hullo Tulsi!)
So the candidates are going to spend 40 minutes each (that’s how long they got for the climate ‘town hall’) saying variations on the exact same things concerning their commitment to equality, blah, blah, blah…
Do a town hall on how each candidate plans to deal with the destruction that Trump has wrought on our institutions – with a focus on how they will address human rights abuses and other crimes done under Trump’s leadership. I want to hear each of the say how aggressively they will pursue these criminals…