Clinton receives endorsement from largest LGBT organization

The clarification comes after Sanders responded to a question from MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow earlier this week about why so many progressive groups – including Planned Parenthood, NARAL and the Human Rights Campaign – were backing Clinton over him.

“Clinton said she was “proud” to have earned the endorsement Tuesday, commending the Human Rights Campaign on social media for “[fighting] with persistence and great courage for LGBT equality”.

Hillary Clinton, her voice softened and tone contemplative, stressed to Iowa voters in Burlington on Wednesday night that while this campaign has not been easy, she knows “what it is like to be knocked down but not knocked out”.

While New Hampshire is considered safe territory for Sanders because of its proximity to his home state, the senator has also risen in polls in Iowa, where the first caucuses will take place in less than two weeks.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) is facing criticism after referring to Planned Parenthood and the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) as part of the political “establishment” that his campaign is taking on.

Clinton also took issue with comments Sanders made during the last Democratic debate, when he called to “move as aggressively as we can to normalize relations with Iran”.

This is the earliest HRC has backed a presidential candidate amid a contested primary. The HRC’s Facebook page has been slammed with thousands negative reviews from Sanders’ supporters, who have been making the organization feel the Bern.

Credit: NCinDC / photo on flickrTo the extent that the LGBT community has an “establishment”, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) is it. The lobbying organization has been around since the 1980s in D.C. heavily pushing for gay rights legislation. He noted Sanders had voted against the so-called Defense of Marriage Act, which was signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1996 and supported by Hillary Clinton at the time.

The HRC maintains Clinton has the “most robust and ambitious LGBT plan any candidate for president has ever laid out”.

The organization said that its 32 community leaders from across the nation had voted unanimously for Clinton.

Clinton also has other ties to HRC leadership.

“Then she very quickly says, “I was the first ‘HRC” in your life, ‘” he remembered fondly.

The “attacking” that Planned Parenthood Action Fund executive vice president Dawn Laguens spoke of is in reference to on-going investigations over Planned Parenthood’s selling of aborted baby parts.

Reddit user Danielle Muscato, who identified herself as a President’s Circle level donor to PP and a blogger for Bernie Sanders, shared a letter she sent to the organization after learning of their endorsement.