The Advocate: Is Bernie Sanders the Most LGBT-Friendly Candidate? [View all]

[Zorra]

The thrust of Sanders's campaign thus far — like his political career as the mayor of Burlington, Vt., 16 years in the U.S. House of Representatives, and the past seven in the U.S. Senate — has focused on supporting working-class Americans through elevated taxes on the wealthy and correcting income inequality "which is now reaching obscene levels," he told the AP.

But Sanders has also been a steadfast and reliable supporter of LGBT equality, supporting the Employment Non-Discrimination Act when it passed the Senate in 2013 and even calling on President Obama to evolve already and support marriage equality in 2011. He's a cosponsor of the federal LGBT-inclusive Student Non-Discrimination Act and has consistently voted against bills seeking to amend the Constitution to ban same-sex marriage, while cosponsoring a bill that would repeal the remaining portions of the so-called Defense of Marriage Act. Sanders has a perfect score of 100 percent on the Human Rights Campaign's latest Congressional Equality Index.

Sanders used Twitter to highlight that long-standing support Monday, just one day before the Supreme Court heard arguments on marriage equality. That comment included an overt reference to Clinton — albeit to the former president and not the current presidential hopeful:



http://www.advocate.com/politics/election/2015/04/30/bernie-sanders-most-lgbt-friendly-candidate