SCDP Rejects Lindsey Graham for Failing to Protect LGBTQ Domestic Violence Rights
Columbia, S.C. — Today, Trav Robertson, South Carolina Democratic Party Chair, released the following statement criticizing Lindsey Graham for cosponsoring a domestic violence prevention bill that denies LGBTQ victims additional support at shelters.
“Lindsey Graham and the GOP doesn’t care about the rights of the LGBTQ community, and by supporting this bill proves that,” Robertson said. “Lindsey Graham and South Carolina Republicans continue to put LGBTQ individuals in danger. The SCGOP’s only concern is to reject South Carolina’s values, modeling Graham. Lindsey’s only concern is playing political games and not standing up for South Carolinians in Washington.”
Graham’s hostility towards the LGBTQ community isn’t new, in 1993 he led the charge to ban LGBTQ people from the South Carolina National Guard. Graham has always positioned himself as an enemy of civil rights for all South Carolinians, and his support of this bill is no different. Graham was quoted then saying “What we are talking about is behavior…behavior that makes most people in South Carolina very uncomfortable”. South Carolina is not the place that Graham thinks it is, and he owes it to the LGBTQ community of our state and the majority of South Carolinians who are supportive to stand up for their civil rights.
At least six cases of same-sex violences were thrown out because the applicable South Carolina laws defines a couple as a man and a woman. Sen. Lindsey Graham is a cosponsor of Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2019 authored by Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA). Her version of the bill does not include a provision passed in the House of Representatives which provides additional support to LGBTQ individuals at shelters.
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