[ 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
up against intolerance and hatred and homophobia, we also need to disarm it. that means universal background checks, red flag laws, someone who has a firearm and pose as danger to themselves or someone else is stopped before its too late, ending the sale of weapons designed exclusively for youths on a battlefield, ar-15s and ak-47s, in addition knowing there are 16 million ar-15s and ak-47s out there we must buy back each and every single one of them. they are potential instruments of terror. so we re going to do that. and, chris, please keep the faith and know that you have a champion in me. i will be that champion as your president. all right. thank you. thank you, congressman. there s tony valenzuela standing right there, an executive director of the foundation for the a.i.d.s. monument. tony? thank you, it s a pleasure to meet you. i m a latino gay man living with