State of Our Union w. Lynda Bengtsson-Davis & Sarah McBride

Welcome to this week’s episode of “Off the Cuff with Rep. Huffman.”

The Trump White House has spent the last year advancing discriminatory policies in many areas: from targeting immigrant families to undermining civil rights safeguards. A frequent target has been the LGBTQ community, which is why I brought my constituent, Lynda Bengtsson-Davis, to President Trump’s State of the Union address.

Lynda, who lives in Fort Bragg, came out as transgender individual after serving for over a decade in the Marine Corps, and currently works as IT manager for the City of Fort Bragg. I was honored to bring Lynda as my guest to the State of the Union Address to remind the President that there are real people being directly affected by his divisive policies, and I’m honored to be able to share our conversation with you on this week’s episode.

I also asked Sarah McBride to join this conversation to discuss the policy implications of President Trump’s actions. You may remember Sarah, who made national news in 2011 when she came out as transgender while serving as American University’s student body president. She is now the National Press Secretary for the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group.

Sarah, Lynda, and I had a great discussion about President Trump’s anti-equality policy agenda, especially his proposed ban on transgender service members. In this episode, we cover everything from how military service has changed in the last 30 years to how the Human Rights Campaign and other advocates are pushing back against Trump’s policies.

Have a question? Want to suggest a guest for future podcasts? Please send your ideas to huffmanpodcast@gmail.com and you can hear me answer them on a future episode of “Off the Cuff with Rep. Huffman.”