GLAAD AND CAMPAIGN FOR SOUTHERN EQUALITY RESPOND TO SUPER TUESDAY RESULTS AND IMPACT ON LGBTQ AMERICANS

GLAAD, the world’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) media advocacy organization, along with Campaign for Southern Equality, based in Asheville, North Carolina, are responding to the results from Super Tuesday and the impact on LGBTQ people.

President Joe Biden won every Super Tuesday Democratic primary state. GLAAD’s Biden Accountability Tracker has documented more than 320 policies, appointments and statements in support of LGBTQ Americans from the Biden-Harris administration’s first three years in office.

Donald Trump won all but one Super Tuesday Republican primary state, and his primary opponent Nikki Haley announced this morning she is suspending her campaign. GLAAD’s Trump Accountability Project has documented more than 200 attacks in policy and rhetoric against LGBTQ people in Trump’s one term presidency and current presidential campaign. Haley did not endorse Trump for the Republican nomination. Trump faces four criminal trials that include 91 felony indictments, a half-billion dollar settlement for cases of defamation, sexual abuse and business fraud, as well as charges of election interference and mishandling of classified national security documents.

In North Carolina, Mark Robinson won the Republican primary for governor. Robinson has repeatedly spread false and harmful rhetoric about LGBTQ people, including describing people as “filth” and “maggots,” as well as spreading sexist, Islamophobic and antisemitic rhetoric, quoting Hitler, and advancing a range of baseless conspiracy theories.

In California, Rep. Adam Schiff advanced to the November election for U.S. Senate. Schiff is an outspoken supporter of LGBTQ equality including The Equality Act, which would provide comprehensive protections against discrimination for every LGBTQ American; expanding health care access and sponsoring the Equal Health Care for All Act, which would make access to care a civil right, without discrimination based on race, gender, sexual orientation, and gender identity; and opposing forced outing policies in schools that endanger LGBTQ student safety and privacy.

Sarah Kate Ellis (she/her), GLAAD President and CEO, responded:
“The results from Super Tuesday show a profound need for LGBTQ and ally voters to continue recognizing the power of their votes and voices to fight for LGBTQ equality and for everyone’s safety and freedoms. Our fundamental freedoms to be ourselves, to be represented accurately and without bias, to make our own health care decisions, to have our votes count, to read books about our lives and be safe in school, are all at stake in the 2024 election. Reporters must ask candidates about their records and proposals for LGBTQ people, and how they advance freedom and prosperity for all Americans.”

Allison Scott (she/her), Director of Impact & Innovation at Campaign for Southern Equality responded:
“Mark Robinson is one of the most virulently anti-LGBTQ+ elected officials in the country…This is a man who has called LGBTQ+ people ‘filth,’ has helped make the North Carolina General Assembly a testing ground for extreme policies that harm all of us, and has called for transgender women like me to be arrested because of who we are. He wants a North Carolina where it’s prohibitively hard for us to exist.”

Campaign for Southern Equality is documenting Robinson’s record of anti-LGBTQ policy and rhetoric here.

Additional background:

• Polling and turnout analysis from the 2020 election indicate that LGBTQ voters played a deciding role in the victory of Joe Biden for President and in key battleground states.

• LGBTQ voters make up approximately 11% of the electorate, a number predicted to grow to one in seven voters by 2030. 28% of GenZ is out as LGBTQ, the most out and racially diverse population cohort in history.

• An estimated 382,000 LGBTQ+ people live in North Carolina, and 26% are raising children,

• Voters can check their voter registration and learn about key deadlines at www.glaad.org/vote.