WASHINGTON – Tonight, 10 Democratic presidential candidates convened in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to participate in “The LGBTQ Presidential Forum,” co-hosted by GLAAD, One Iowa, The Gazette, and The Advocate. The participating candidates included many of the 2020 primary’s front runners including Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, Julian Castro, and Cory Booker.

In response to the event, Terry Schilling, executive director of American Principles Project, released the following statement:

In the first three rounds of Democratic presidential debates, ‘LGBTQ issues’ were almost totally absent. This was no accident — Democrat leaders and their media allies know these issues are political losers. But tonight, away from the national television spotlight, we heard the real agenda of the top Democratic candidates. And it’s not pretty.

To start, nearly every candidate on stage pledged their support to the so-called ‘Equality Act,’ a radical bill which would open up women’s private spaces and sports teams to biological males, shutter religious charities, and eviscerate Americans’ conscience rights. They promised to weaponize the federal bureaucracy and courts against people of faith, signing executive orders and nominating judges which would steamroll the religious liberty of families and communities in the name of ending ‘discrimination.’ And they vowed to undo Trump administration actions such as the President’s transgender military policy, threatening to undermine military readiness in the name of progressive ideology.

While Democrats might think they can hide the true extremism of these views behind benign-sounding catchphrases like ‘love is love’ and ‘equal means equal,’ voters are smarter than that. The promises made tonight are likely to haunt the eventual nominee in 2020, and President Trump would be smart to use this to his advantage in next year’s election.

To schedule an interview with Terry Schilling, contact Paul Dupont at (o) 202-503-2010 or pdupont@americanprinciplesproject.org.