Post submitted by Rob Flaherty, former HRC Rapid Response Press Secretary

Ahead of this week’s confirmation of President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for United States Attorney General, HRC released a report detailing Jeff Sessions’ alarming record on LGBTQ equality. The report was delivered to members of Congress with an attached letter from Chad Griffin, President of the Human Rights Campaign, calling on Senators to oppose Sessions’ nomination. 

Senator Sessions has spent a lifetime in public service devoted to proudly denying equality and justice for LGBTQ people. As Attorney General of Alabama and as a U.S. Senator, Jeff Sessions has not only ignored every opportunity to protect the LGBTQ community from violence, discrimination, and marginalization, but he has actively used his positions to stand against equality for LGBTQ Americans in nearly every form.

 “Donald Trump’s pick for Attorney General has never been shy about showing animus toward all types of Americans--LGBTQ people, women, people of color, and immigrants -- to name a few,” said HRC President Chad Griffin. “Trump’s decision to appoint Sessions for this position is yet another chilling sign that Donald Trump’s administration will stand proudly against equality for LGBTQ Americans. The American people deserve to know about the anti-equality records of Trump’s cabinet picks -- and we at the Human Rights Campaign will be holding them to account.”

HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT JEFF SESSIONS’ LGBTQ RECORD

• Jeff Sessions has repeatedly supported laws that criminalize LGBTQ activity, using discriminatory laws to harrass LGBTQ Alabamans in the 70’s and blasting the Lawrence v. Texas decision, which finally ended the criminalization of same-sex relationships.
• Jeff Sessions supported “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and believed it was “pretty effective.”
• On marriage, Sessions co-sponsored and voted for the Federal Marriage Amendment, saying he would seek “again and again” to pass an amendment to the United States Constitution prohibiting marriage equality. Of the 2015 Obergefell ruling, Sessions said it  “goes beyond what I consider to be the realm of reality”
• Jeff Sessions has repeatedly opposed hate crimes protections for LGBTQ Americans -- even attempting to insert a poison pill amendment to try to sink the 2009 Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act
• Jeff Sessions has actively attempted to block some of the most effective methods of preventing HIV and other STIs--specifically safer sex education.
• Jeff Sessions once tried to terminate the National Endowment for the Arts based on its financial support for a lesbian filmmaker.

For more, download the full report here. For Griffin’s full letter, visit: this link.