CHICAGO (TND) — Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, said at a kickoff event for the Democratic National Convention last week that the United States needs to think about the concept of “freedom” in a more “revolutionary” way than the Founding Fathers did when they created a “little piece of paper.”
Robinson, who identifies as queer, argued at the DNC’s LGBTQ+ kickoff that “we can’t just worry about protecting democracy right now,” noting that “we need to reimagine it with people who look and love like us at the center.”
“And I think for us right now, it’s about reinventing freedom and this American story in a way that is more revolutionary than what our founders actually wrote on that little piece of paper, but rather is the kind of democracy that is by and for all the people of this country,” she said.
Robinson also spoke on stage at the DNC in Chicago, where she said the “story of America” is a story of progress toward freedom.
“In just a few generations, my family went from being enslaved in Mississippi to becoming the first free black family in Muscatine, Iowa, and is now preparing to elect President Kamala Harris,” Robinson said. “There is progress, my friends.”
The Human Rights Campaign endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris after President Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race last month. Since then, the organization has supported her through actions such as the “Out for Harris LGBTQ+ Unity” call, during which Robinson argued that the election was a choice between two different futures for the United States.
“This time we don’t just have a choice between two candidates,” Robinson said.
“We are choosing between two different futures for our country, two different futures for our children at a moment when we need to make sure it is loud and clear: We are not just going to defeat Donald Trump. We are going to stamp out Trumpism and all of MAGAism wherever it lives and wherever it resides,” she added.
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