The leaders of nine national and state LGBTQ+ groups sent a letter to the Democratic National Committee on Monday to call on the party's leaders to "stand up for full equality" and demand they "do more" to protect the rights of the gay and transgender community, The Hill reported.
Signatories of the letter included leaders from Human Rights Campaign, GLAAD, and Advocates for Trans Equality, among others.
In the letter, they wrote: "[T]he "LGBTQ+ community is being targeted substantively as well as rhetorically, in campaigns, state legislatures, Congress and from every corner of the Trump administration."
And in response, they assert that "a small but vocal number of Democratic officials seem to have wavered on their conviction that LGBTQ+ people deserve the equal protection of the laws" since President Donald Trump won the election on Nov. 5.
Some Democrats "have suggested a strategy of appeasement: that compromising with a little bit of discrimination against a particularly misunderstood and powerless segment of our community could satisfy anti-equality opponents. We have fought these same opponents for decades, in state houses, in Congress, and at the ballot box, and we can say unequivocally that this strategy will not work," the letter read.
The American Civil Liberties Union is tracking what it says are 456 anti-LGBTQ bills in statehouses across the country. While the letter cites no specific examples, the letter's authors say they're expecting Democrats to stand with LGBTQ+ people "in this moment of crisis."
"When you fight for us, we will fight with you," the letter read.
"Elected Democratic officials have pushed back, voted no, exercised their veto authority, and stood up as champions for LGBTQ+ people, and particularly for the transgender community. We recognize and appreciate those efforts. But the party's leaders simply must do more," they wrote.