VIDEO & PHOTOS: At Kickoff Dem Convention Event, LGBTQ+ Movement Leaders, Influencers and Political Strategists Lift up the Power of Equality Voters and the Threat of the MAGA Project 2025 Agenda

by Delphine Luneau •

HRC President Kelley Robinson: “We Can Have A 34-Count Convicted Felon Wannabe White Nationalist Dictator, or We Can Have a White House that Looks Like America and Fights for All Of Us — We Just Have to Show Up.”

Watch the Video from the Program Here

CHICAGO — The Human Rights Campaign, Advocates for Transgender Equality, LGBTQ+ Victory Fund, movement leaders, and leading political influencers and strategists gathered today for a show of LGBTQ+ political force at McCormick Place in Chicago, on the first day of the Democratic National Committee Convention.

Dubbed the DNC’s LGBTQ+ Kickoff, the conversations focused on the impact and influence of the LGBTQ+ movement this election and how defeating Donald Trump and the Project 2025 agenda rests on the engagement of the LGBTQ+ community and the more than 75 million Equality Voters nationwide.

Speakers at the event included: Kelley Robinson, Human Rights Campaign President; Senator Sarah McBride, Delaware State Senator & candidate for Congress; Precious Brady-Davis, Commissioner at the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Chicago; Wilson Cruz, Award-winning actor, Producer, and Activist; Sophia Bush, actress, activist, producer, and entrepreneur, Jordan C. Brown, political strategist and founder of One Blue Hill; Guy Cecil, President of Miles Strategies, Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen, Executive Director, Advocates for Transgender Equality; Annise Parker, President and CEO of LGBTQ+ Victory Fund and former mayor of Houston; Dr. Marisa Richmond, member of the Metro Historical Commission and the Presidential Advisory Commission on Advancing Educational Excellence, Equity, and Economic Opportunities for Black Americans; Keith Edwards, Democratic digital & communications strategist; Blair Imani, Creator of Smarter in Seconds, LA Times bestselling author, and historian; Charlotte Clymer, an activist, military veteran, an author of the popular blog Charlotte’s Web Thoughts on politics, religion, and culture.

Some key moments from the event:

KELLEY ROBINSON: “I need us to be clear — lesbian, gay, bi, trans and queer people – we have always been at the forefront of that progress and change in the United States of America. … We are here, we will always be here, we are not going back.”

Kelley Robinson (Photo by Rob Dicker for the Human Rights Campaign)

PRECIOUS BRADY-DAVIS: “We find ourselves in the midst of an extraordinary moment in the canon of LGBTQ+ history. The fight is before us, and I believe we will win.”

Commissioner Precious Brady-Davis (Photo by Rob Dicker for the Human Rights Campaign)

WILSON CRUZ: “We have work to do to elect Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, the next president and vice president of the United States of America. The choices we make in this election will have very real consequences for our families, our freedoms, our future, they could not be painted in starker contrast.”

Wilson Cruz (Photo by Rob Dicker for the Human Rights Campaign)

SOPHIA BUSH: “We show up here because we believe in the experiment of America. We believe in the place that my mother’s mother was brought to on a boat through Ellis Island, a place that my dad came to in the ‘70s and never left. We believe in a place where we get to have different kinds of families and different kinds of views and different kinds of futures.”

Sophia Bush (Photo by Rob Dicker for the Human Rights Campaign)

BLAIR IMANI: “I think that we finally shifted, speaking of political strategy, from telling the young people that they don’t want to vote, and finally teaching them how the heck they get to the polls. … They are sick of trying to live these scripts, they are being their full selves all the time, and we finally have a big enough tent that accommodates them.”

Blair Imani (Photo by Rob Dicker for the Human Rights Campaign)

STATE SEN. SARAH McBRIDE: “Hope and history, that is what this week is about. And I know we all come together to this space, to this city, to this cause, for the same reasons. Because we know what is at stake. We know what is at stake in this election.”

Senator Sarah McBride (Photo by Rob Dicker for the Human Rights Campaign)

ANNISE PARKER: “What has changed is that we can find each other, we can organize with each other, we can use our collective power in ways we never had the ability to do in the 70s and the 80s. What has not changed is that we’re still under attack. And what has not changed is that the most vulnerable segment of our broader community are those that are under attack.”

Mayor Annise Parker (Photo by Rob Dicker for the Human Rights Campaign)

RODRIGO HENG-LEHTINEN: “They’re going after trans people because they’re trying to go after all LGBT people and they see going after the most misunderstood people under the LGBT umbrella as a way to erode all the rights and protections that all of us in this room benefit from today. … We may be under attack, but we are fighting back.”

Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen (Photo by Rob Dicker for the Human Rights Campaign)

Honored at the event was Earl Fowlkes, Center For Black Equity President/CEO Emeritus. Fowlkes served as President and CEO of the organization for more than 25 years, advancing racial equity and empowering Black LGBTQ+ communities.

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