Hillary Clinton has garnered one of her first major endorsements in run bid for the White House : The nation 's largest lesbian political action committee . The group , LPAC , launched Lesbians4Hillary on Monday to support the former First Lady 's bid to become the nation 's first female president . Lesbians4Hillary , co-chaired by pioneering tennis great Billie Jean King , said : 'Hillary Clinton is a proven leader and she has a strong track record when it comes to inclusion -- specifically for women and the LGBTQ community . Scroll down for video . Tennis star Billie Jean King ( right ) is co-chairing the Lesbians4Hillary campaign . King , pictured with Clinton in 2008 , helped run the former Fiirst Lady 's 2008 Women for Hillary Clinton wing . King , pictured with Clinton in 2001 , said : 'Hillary Clinton is a proven leader and she has a strong track record when it comes to inclusion -- specifically for women and the LGBTQ community ' 'Her entire career has been a road map to get her to this moment and she has earned my respect and my vote to become the next President of the United States of America . I am honored to join LPAC and help lead our effort to elect Hillary Clinton in 2016 . ' King , who was outed as a lesbian in 1981 , was a leader of the group 'Women for Hillary ' in 2008 , as well . The video in which Hillary announced she was running for president included a clip of a lesbian couple . The Twitter handle for the new group is @ lezs4hillary . Many gays and lesbians point to Clinton 's 2011 speech in Switzerland as Secretary of State in which she declared : 'Human rights are gay rights and gay rights are human rights . ' In the video released yesterday announcing Clinton 's candidacy for president , two gay couples were included . Among them , two lesbians who look lovingly into each other 's eyes . However , in her 2008 campaign , Clinton did not support gay marriage . It took her five years - to publicly say that she supported gay marriage . President Barack Obama publicly announced his support for gay marriage nearly a year earlier in March 2012 . The Economist called Clinton 's stance on gay marriage , 'cautious to the point of cowardice . ' 'It is not convincing to argue , as her supporters do , that she is only free to make her views known now that she has stepped down as America 's chief diplomat . Her successor at the State Department , John Kerry , and has not been stoned as a blasphemer on any of his stops around the world to date , ' the magazine 's US columnist wrote . Critics also point out that as First Lady , she did not oppose her husband signing 'Do n't Ask Do n't Tell , ' which banned being openly gay in the military or the Defense of Marriage Act , which banned gay marriage at the federal level .
LPAC , a pro-LGBT Super PAC , launched Lesbians4Hillary on Monday . Group is co-chaired by tennis great Billie Hillary Clinton . Jean King opposed gay marriage until 2013 - a year after Obama came out in support . She also did not publicly object to passage of Do n't Ask Do n't Tell and the Defense of Marriage Act as First Lady under her husband 's administration .