London Mayor Sadiq Khan this week called out a slew of U.S. Republican Presidential candidates for their “horrid” views on issues affecting the LGBTQ community.
Speaking at the PinkNews Westminster Pride Reception, Khan, who has been mayor of London since 2016, told the audience there are still “big challenges” the LGBTQ community faces in 2023, criticizing U.S. politicians who use anti-LGBTQ rhetoric as part of their “campaign strategy.”
“There are candidates running to be the president of the USA campaigning against [the] rights of the LGBTQ+ community, campaigning to be abhorrent and horrid to the trans community,” Khan told the audience Wednesday, according to PinkNews.com
“But we mustn’t be lulled into a false sense of security [that] it’s not happening here. You’ve just got to pick up a paper, you’ve just got to watch TV, you’ve just got to go on social media to see some of the images that some politicians are putting out.”
Khan added said politicians can’t allow their “parties to be sucked into these ‘culture wars,’” also making a reference to the comments Republican Presidential candidate Nikki Haley made during a CNN Town Hall appearance where she claimed that teenage girls are contemplating suicide because girls who identify as transgender share the same space as them.
“Some politicians will play on peoples’ fears to win votes,” Khan added. “Other politicians have got to be addressing those fears and trying to win votes with arguments and elections.”
The U.S. has seen a recent wave of GOP-led state legislatures passing or implementing laws that target the LGBTQ community, such as Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Act, also known as the “Don’t Say Gay Bill,” which was signed into law by Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis.
The Biden administration announced a series of measures Thursday that focus on supporting the LGBTQ community and counteracting the recent anti-LGBTQ measures pushed by GOP-led legislatures.