A draft of the Democratic Party
platform includes broad support for LGBT rights.
The platform, which will be voted on by
delegates in the next two weeks, was recently released to the public.
Under the headline “Protecting LGBTQ+
Health,” the authors criticize the Trump administration's recent
rule change that allows health care providers and insurance companies
to turn away patients based on their gender identity.
“We condemn the Trump
administration’s discriminatory actions against the LGBTQ+
community, including the dangerous and unethical regulation allowing
doctors, hospitals and insurance companies to discriminate against
patients based on their sexual orientation or gender identity,” the
draft platform states. “Democrats will reverse this rule-making and
restore non-discrimination protections for LGBTQ+ people in health
The platform also calls for ensuring
“full access to needed health care and resources” for the LGBT
community, including access to PrEP, which prevents HIV infection,
and gender reassignment therapies.
Democrats also call for passage of the
Equality Act, a federal LGBT protections bill that passed the House
but stalled in the Senate. President Donald Trump has signaled he
does not back the bill.
“We will fight to enact the Equality
Act and at last outlaw discrimination against LGBTQ+ people in
housing, public accommodations, access to credit, education, jury
service and federal programs,” the platform states. “We will work
to ensure LGBTQ+ people are not discriminated against when seeking to
adopt or foster children, protect LGBTQ+ children from bullying and
assault and guarantee transgender students’ access to facilities
based on their gender identity.”
Other sections of the draft platform
commit the party to promoting LGBT rights abroad and ending LGBT
The Republican Party has decided to
recycle its 2016 platform, rather than write a new document. In 2016,
Republicans called for a constitutional amendment that defines
marriage as a heterosexual union, supported therapies that attempt to
alter the sexual orientation or gender identity of LGBT people
(so-called conversion or “ex-gay” therapy), and rejected