Bernie Sanders displays transgender flag outside office
Bernie Sanders office (Twitter)
US Senator Bernie Sanders has put the trans flag up outside his office in a display of support for the transgender community.
Sanders posted a photo of the flag beside the US flag to Twitter today and said: “Discrimination has no place in our society. I am proud to display this flag as a symbol of my support for transgender people across the country. We must stand with transgender people in all of our communities.”
The tweet led to an outpouring of support from LGBT+ people and allies. One woman replied to his tweet, and said: “I have a trans son and this means a lot to me. Thank you.”
Another said: “Thank you for proudly displaying this flag cos all people deserve respect.”
Bernie Sanders: Anti-trans attacks are ‘part of a bigotry which has got to end’
The Senator—who has said he intends to seek the Democratic nomination for president in 2020—has previously been vocal in his support of transgender people.
In 2018, he decried Donald Trump’s ban on transgender people serving in the military, noting in a Facebook post that the president’s administration was placing itself “on the wrong side of history.”
“I am proud to display this flag as a symbol of my support for transgender people across the country. We must stand with transgender people in all of our communities.”
– Bernie Sanders
“There is a reason the administration has not provided any scientific evidence to justify this policy: there is no justification for this sort of discrimination.
Win McNamee/Getty
“Transgender people have served and continue to serve our country honorably in the military. Unfortunately, this administration is not treating them honorably.”
Similarly, in 2017, Sanders wrote on Twitter: “The attacks against transgender people are part of a bigotry which has got to end.”
Sanders has criticised Democratic focus on diversity
Sanders famously competed with Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination for the presidency in 2016. Clinton ultimately lost out to Donald Trump, who Sanders recently said was “the most racist, sexist, homophobic, bigoted president in history.”
Speaking earlier this year, Sanders criticised the focus within the Democratic Party on diversity.
In the interview, he said: “There are people who are very big into diversity but whose views end up being not particularly sympathetic to working people, whether they’re white or black or Latino.
“My main belief is that we need to bring together a coalition of people—of black and white and Latino and Asian-American and Native-American—around a progressive agenda which is prepared to take on an extraordinarily powerful ruling class in this country.
“That is my view. Many of my opponents do not hold that view, and they think that all that we need is people who are candidates who are black or white, who are black or Latino or woman or gay, regardless of what they stand for, that the end result is diversity.”
