Gay leaders recall Kennedy’s impact

Source: Keen News Service

Gay leaders recall Kennedy’s impact

The man whom many in the LGBT community consider their greatest friend in the U.S. Senate has died.

Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), who fought for equal rights for gays on many fronts and was an early defender of people with HIV, died in the early hours of Wednesday, August 26. He had been suffering from brain cancer.

“Our community has had no greater champion in Congress,” said David Smith, who worked as the senator’s Director of Communication from late 2003 to early 2005.

Smith, vice president for programs at the Human Rights Campaign, said credited Kennedy with taking on some of the community’s worst adversaries, including the late Senator Jesse Helms, during its toughest battles.

“From early days of AIDS crisis, he was there for us,” recalled Smith. “He was battling for us, taking on a then very powerful Jesse Helms, who wanted to see us in concentration camps. God only knows what would have happened if Senator Kennedy hadn’t been there.”

Read more: http://www.365gay.com/news/gay-leaders-recall-kennedys-impact/

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For everything you have done and everything your legacy will continue to do, sir, I thank you.

brown, red, gay, straight,bisexual, trans-gender, or whatever.

What a role model he was

:patriot:

senators who showed a willingness to support it back then.