Washington, DC, JUNE 4, 2016….. Trans United Fund, the nation's first political advocacy group and PAC for trans people, engaged each presidential campaigns with a candidate questionnaire on issues critical to trans people's lives. The group released Senator Sanders' response to the TUF questionnaire on Saturday morning. Secretary Clinton's campaign released the following op-ed yesterday. The group has received no response from the Trump campaign.
"Though we are a new organization, TUF has already confirmed what our founding committee felt so strongly about from the beginning - that the trans community needs a diverse, vocal, and unapologetic organization organized around the interests, not of any given candidate, but of our community," said Hayden Mora, a TUF founder.
Sen. Sanders' engagement, both by completing the questionnaire and through his campaign's thoughtful engagement with the group, is historic. His answers are available on the TUF website. "While we still await the completion of the questionnaire from the Clinton campaign, the issuing of the following op-ed ( www.cnn.com/2016/06/03/opinions/equality-in-america-clinton/index.html ) and, in particular, Sec. Clinton's uplifting of trans women of color, trans youth, and issues that affect the most marginalized trans people are a victory we celebrate," said Monica Roberts, TUF Advisory Committee Member.
"As we enter this month of Pride and the culmination of the Democratic primary process, we are glad that we have at least two candidates in the race that have - without question - been the most publicly supportive of trans people in history," said Andrea Jenkins, TUF Advisory Committee Member.
"Yet we also carry with us the names and lives of the twelve trans women murdered this year; the young people who have lost their lives; the horrific conditions of immigrants and those in the criminal justice system; and all those in our community whose lives are bound by fear and discrimination.
We have much work to do. We will carry these truths into the voting booth as we continue to seek engagement around the critical issues that impact our full community and as we work hard to build political power," she concluded.
Trans United was launched to unite the voices of trans people and our allies to combat the endemic levels of violence and discrimination faced by the trans community and the well funded and coordinated attacks by the conservative movement against trans people. Our Advisory Committee is comprised of a multi-racial, multi-generational team with identities across the gender spectrum. Trans United Fund is the C4 arm of Trans United and represents the only, national express advocacy political group centering trans lives.
For more information see www.transunitedfund.org .