By Jeff Taylor and Kate Sosin

Former Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Amy Klobuchar have explicitly spelled out some of their policy positions on LGBTQ rights, after questions concerning releasing a platform.

HRC released its 2020 Presidential Questionnaire on Monday, eliciting responses from each of the remaining Democratic candidates, save for Tulsi Gabbard, who did not provide answers. Each of the other seven candidates provided pro-LGBTQ answers to each of the organization’s eighteen questions.

While Michael Bloomberg, Pete Buttigieg, Bernie Sanders, Tom Steyer, and Elizabeth Warren have all released LGBTQ policy platforms, this marks the first time Biden has offered substantive answers on the broad spectrum of issues affecting the LGBTQ community. Klobuchar very quietly released a plan in late January on her website.

NewNowNext has been pressing the Biden and Klobuchar campaigns for an LGBTQ platform or policy interviews for months to no avail. Klobuchar's campaign alerted NewNowNext that she has released a policy, despite not announcing it.

Biden

Biden voted in 1996 in favor of the Defense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage as being only between a man and a woman, but his speaking up in favor of marriage equality in 2012 is widely credited with helping to move former President Barack Obama to also publicly embrace it.

Some of Biden’s platforms on other topics have included mention of the LGBTQ community, including a policy page on ending violence against women being inclusive of trans women and an LGBTQ-inclusive health care plan.

Biden’s HRC responses are largely as expected, but his plan for stemming the tide of violence against transgender women of color offers a fresh perspective on the candidate, who proposes strengthening hate crime laws.

“Additionally, transgender and non-binary people without identification documents that accurately reflect their gender identity are often exposed to harassment and violence and denied employment, housing, critical public benefits, and even the right to vote,” he writes. “As president, I will build on this action to ensure all transgender individuals have access to identification documents that accurately reflect their gender identity, a key step to reducing anti-transgender discrimination, harrassment [sic]., and violence.”

Biden goes on to state his commitment to keep transgender prisoners safe.

“The Obama-Biden Administration issued guidance on implementing the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) standards, requiring gender identity be considered when making housing assignments,” he notes. “The Trump-Pence Administration has rolled back this guidance, requiring biological sex to be used in housing determinations, putting transgender inmates in serious danger of assault and rape.”

However, the PREA guidelines, which require state prisons and jails to house trans people on a case-by-case basis, have not been rolled back. The Trump administration did roll back transgender guidance in the Transgender Offender Manual last year, which impacts federal prisons.

Klobuchar

Klobuchar has had a mixed record on LGBTQ rights, evolving on the topic in recent years. She backed the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act in 2011, after initially being considered a possible holdout, but did not sign onto the Democratic Party’s Freedom to Marry Plank in 2012.

Klobuchar’s vote for anti-LGBTQ Trump appointee David Ryan Stras to the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals raised concerns among advocates, but her campaign spokesperson, Carlie Waibel, told the Washington Blade the senator’s vote was not an endorsement of all his prior actions and was in part due to fears Trump could select someone worse if Stras failed to successfully make it through the confirmation process.

Klobuchar’s questionnaire offers less detail on her plans for preventing violence against women of color. She too supports increased hate crime legislation, she says.

“She will also ban the so-called gay and transgender panic defense that excuses violent behavior against members of the LGBTQ community by passing Senator Markey’s Gay and Trans Panic Defense Prohibition Act, legislation Senator Klobuchar co-sponsors in the Senate,” her questionnaire states.

Both Candidates

Biden and Klobuchar, like the five other candidates who filled out the questionnaire, said they were in support of: the Equality Act, which would add LGBTQ protections to existing civil rights law; marriage equality; increased funding for HIV and AIDS prevention, treatment and research; policies to prohibit anti-trans discrimination and “a comprehensive federal response to address anti-transgender violence”; requiring government-funded agencies to allow LGBTQ couples to adopt and foster children; the Safe Schools Improvement Act, to require school districts receiving federal funding to adopt codes of conduct prohibiting bullying; working with foreign governments to ensure the human rights of LGBTQ people; appointing judges to the Supreme Court who are committed to upholding the rights of all Americans; appointing qualified members of the LGBTQ community to key administrative positions within the Cabinet; rescinding Trump’s partial trans military ban; and upholding an Obama-era Executive Order prohibiting discrimination against LGBTQ federal employees and those working for federal contractors.

They also signaled support for: the Voting Rights Advancement Act; a woman’s “right to safe and accessible abortion”; immigration reform, with a path to legal citizenship; and “sensible gun safety measures including limiting access to assault-style rifles, expanding background checks, and limiting the ability for suspected terrorists and those with a history of domestic abuse to access guns.”

Further, they said they would oppose the First Amendment Defense Act, which would make it easier for people to discriminate based on religious beliefs.

Both Biden and Klobuchar also said they would work to “work to address the full range of LGBTQ concerns across the federal government,” including “youth homelessness, the ban on gay and bisexual men donating blood, significant gaps in data collection, inability to access to medically-necessary health care, and critically important cultural competency training.”

One question not on the list? HRC did not press candidates on their stance on decriminalizing sex work, a hot button issue that may have set them apart.

HRC does support decriminalization, noted Lucas Acosta national press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign.

“This questionnaire was meant to be representative, not entirely comprehensive,” Acosta told NewNowNext. “While we were not able to get to every issue, we are proud to have engaged deeply with the candidates about their visions for LGBTQ equality.”

BuzzFeed asked the presidential candidates if they supported decriminalizing sex work back in May. Tulsi Gabbard is the lone candidate still in the race who said yes. Pete Buttigieg, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren were noncommittal. Biden and Klobuchar gave no response. Klobuchar said during the CNN LGBTQ town hall event that she was not in favor of decriminalizing sex work. Tom Steyer and Michael Bloomberg had not yet entered the race.

Editor's note: A previous version of the story stated Biden had voted for the Defense of Marriage Act in 2006. It has been corrected to read 1996. A previous version also stated that Klobuchar had not released an LGBTQ platform. Her platform was released in January but not publicized.NewNowNext regrets the errors.