[ cheers and applause ] good evening, everyone, and welcome to a historic night. Cnns democratic president ial town hall, equality in america. Im don lemon, thank you so much for being here. There was a time when people were afraid, and you know many still are. Theyre afraid to come out to their friends and their families for fear of the consequences. Now it has been four years since the Supreme Court ruled same sex marriage is legal. It is a big step. But there is still a whole lot of work to do. Tonights cnn and the Human Rights Campaign have been hosting an unprecedented event where members of the Lgbtq Community and their allies can ask the candidates questions that are important to them. Well soon hear from senator amy klobuchar, julian castro, and businessman tom steyer. But first i want you to welcome to the stage now congressman beto orourke. Hey, everybody, good to see
you. How you doing, congressman . Good to see you. I saw you on the street and you introduced yourself. How m
hiv for 26 years. our communities get closer to hiv eradication through treatment and prevention and yesterday americans living with hiv are subject to outat a timed and stigmatizing criminal laws will you support legislation calling for the review of all hiv criminal laws and take action to end the criminalization of americans based on hiv status? what other steps, if any, would you take to help reduce hiv a.i.d.s. stigma and discrimination in the united states? tony, thank you for the question and thank you for the work that you re doing. you re right that there is discrimination against our fellow americans. as well as discrimination against those who are coming into this country. asylum seekers, families separated based on the hiv status of a single family member. we don t do that for families who come here with the flu or other health care challenges right now in this country. we ve singled out a population in america. at the same time we have absolutely failed our fellow americ