During a recent stop in Las Vegas, Hillary Clinton made some important promises to the LGBT community. On Aug. 18, the Democratic presidential front-runner said she would enforce the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on same-sex marriage across the country, as well as support the LGBT community in other crucial ways. 

“As president, I will do everything I can to make sure that marriage equality is enforced. It’s the law of the land and it needs to be enforced across our country,” said Clinton. 

Clinton’s comments on same-sex marriage come after continued media reports of clerks refusing to issue marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples. Her statements were in answer to a question from someone who identified as a “local LGBT business owner and founding president of the Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce in Nevada”, this according to the Washington Blade. The posed question was: “How are you going to support the LGBT community in our country?”

After making the aforementioned comments on equal marriage, – but not addressing how she would enforce it – she moved on to tackle the topic of discrimination. She recalled that as a member of the U.S. Senate she co-sponsored the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). “We have a lot of work to do there. There’s just so much continuing discrimination and bias.”

ENDA focused solely on prohibiting discrimination against LGBT in the workplace. It was not introduced in this Congress, and in any case it is now deemed by many LGBT advocates as doing too little. Clinton made no mention of the new Equality Act, legislation currently pending before Congress that would prohibit discrimination against LGBT in all areas of civil rights law. She has, however, endorsed the act on Twitter. 

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Clinton also specifically mentioned Las Vegas, noting that in the city and across the country there is a high rate of LGBT youth homelessness. “I particularly worry about young people because there is a lot of misunderstanding and even mistreatment still today by families of young people who are LGBT, and they’re hoping to be accepted and they are not, and they find themselves on the street,” she said. “I know you’ve got people in Las Vegas who are homeless on the streets, who are young LGBT people who have had to leave home.” 

On this issue she had answers. “We need more services, we need more support, and we all need to be speaking out in favor of treating these young people with respect and dignity and giving them a chance. And I hope that as president, I will not only be able to speak to that, but demonstrate how we do it, and then support laws that will make it easier for a lot of our people, particularly young people.” 

Hillary clinton and Derek Washington

Local Las Vegas Community Member Derek Washington on Hillary Clinton:

“I was very impressed by secretary Clinton. I’ve been ready for Hillary for years and she didn’t disappoint!”