LGBTQ+ EQUALITY
There are federal laws protecting people from discrimination based on race, religion, sex, and disability, but there are no such federal laws explicitly protecting LGBTQ+ people from discrimination. I am in full support of the Equality Act and the Every Child Deserves a Family Act!
We should fight discrimination against LGBTQ+ people by creditors, banks, and health insurance providers, so that people will not be unfairly denied mortgages, credit cards, student loans or insurance based on their sexual orientation & gender identity.
When it come to health discrimination in health care, it endangers LGBTQ+ people’s lives through delays or straight out denials of medical care. This discourages them to seek healthcare and makes it more difficult to find it elsewhere. Obama did give federal protections to the LGBTQ+ in healthcare through Section 1557 of the ACA, but they still have been under attack.
I call for equal health care access to all. Once we have a single-payer system no one will be worried about discrimination by insurers. It will also help the community with coverage for their transition-related health services. That is why Medicare-For-All is so important.
Also, today male-to-male sexual contact accounts for 68 percent of new HIV infections. Meanwhile, an estimated 14 percent of transgender women are HIV positive. For politically conscious gay and transgender people, ending the AIDS epidemic is of millennium importance.
An effective medication for HIV is Truvada that costs people nearly $2,000 a month. The pharmaceutical company Gilead keeps raising the price. Compare that to 176 euros in France subsidized by the French government where patients pay nothing. The government must be able to negotiate these prices, that is why we need:
1. Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Act
Allow Medicare to negotiate with the big drug companies to lower prescription drug prices.
2. Affordable and Safe Prescription Drug Importation Act
Allow patients, pharmacists, and wholesalers to buy low-cost prescription drugs from Canada and other industrialized countries.
3. Prescription Drug Price Relief Act
Cut prescription drug prices in half by pegging prices to the median drug price in five major countries: Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Japan.
Therefore, we need the Medicare-For-All package, we must amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to give protective status to the LGBTQ+ through the Equality Act, enact the Family Act, we need to press for states to adopt explicit statewide laws against such discrimination, and we must fund LGBTQ+ community health centers!