Where Does Hillary Stand On Trans Issues?

Former secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton declared today she is a candidate for the 2016 Democratic nomination for president. 

While many people are justifiably excited on our side of the political spectrum that she has finally done so, she's seen as a prohibitive favorite to win the nomination, the general election and be inaugurated as the 46th and first female president of the United States, there is still a long way to go until that possibly happens.

Should we have that happen, and on January 20, 2017 we end up with a second President Clinton, one of the questions we are currently asking in Trans World is whether she would be as great a president on trans issues as President Obama currently is.



The question on whether she would be that trans friendly president combined with her early endorsement by an HRC we were royally pissed at in 2007 is why many of us in Trans World (myself included) not only supported then Senator Obama, we also took the unprecedented step of putting our money where our mouths were by setting up an ActBlue page.

That page raised over $10K for his ultimately successful capturing of the Democratic nomination in June 2008 and the presidency five months later, and as we'd hoped, President Obama did indeed become the most trans friendly POTUS ever.

Now there is no fracking way I'll be voting for a Teapublican in 2016.  I know this election is far too important.   Four SCOTUS seats may pop open during this next term. There are still vacant seats in the federal judiciary.   We have serious issues like income inequality and global warming amongst others to tackle. 

And with the GOP controlling both houses of Congress, we will need a Democratic POTUS standing by with her (or our eventual nominee) veto pen.

You ignore the trans community at your political peril, as we proved in 2008.   But I have to ask if a President Clinton will appoint a qualified trans person to either her cabinet or to positions in her administration?  Will she continue the trans inclusive policy direction that the Obama administration has set in motion?  

Will she push for a trans inclusive ENDA?   Will her attorney general interpret the 1964 Civil Rights Act as covering trans Americans and vigorously prosecute anti-trans discrimination?

Will she even say 'transgender' or acknowledge our existence during and after her we hope will be successful campaign?

She stated she wants to be a champion for everyday Americans/   Does that extend to trans* Americans?

These are questions that many of us in Trans World will need to have answered by her or her campaign before many trans skeptics will be 'Ready For Hillary'.