Becerra to LGBTQ+ Leaders at Alice B. Toklas Pride Breakfast: "It's Time to Suit Up"

Leading gubernatorial candidate invokes 30-year fight against DOMA, warns “Make America Great Again” is “a warning, not a slogan”

(San Francisco, CA) Gubernatorial candidate Secretary Xavier Becerra today delivered a forceful call to action at the Alice B. Toklas LGBTQ+ Democratic Club’s annual Pride Breakfast, urging the community to meet a new wave of attacks on civil rights with the same courage that has defined the club for decades.

“Thank you for standing with me when many didn’t, and thank you for empowering me to stand with you, starting in 2027, when we have a fight ahead of us,” Becerra said.

Speaking along with Senator Alex Padilla, former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie and a room of elected officials and community leaders, Becerra drew a direct line between today’s political climate and his own experience fighting the Defense of Marriage Act in Congress three decades ago.

“Thirty years ago, with Nancy Pelosi, we were in the fight in the House of Representatives in 1996 against the Defense of Marriage Act. We stood up – all 67 of 435. That’s who stood up to defend our right to love, our right to live, our right to be who we wanted to be,” Becerra said. “Times have changed, but not that much. We still have to stand up.”

Invoking the club’s namesake, Becerra credited Alice B. Toklas with refusing “to make herself small at a time when our country was demanding exactly that,” a moment he said is repeating itself today.

“If there’s anyone who thinks that ‘Make America Great Again’ is a slogan, you’ve got it wrong. It’s a warning,” Becerra said. “It’s time for all of us to put on Alice’s uniform and stand up the way she did.”

Tying the moment to the Compton’s Cafeteria riots 60 years ago and the DOMA fight 30 years ago, Becerra said the community must resist inaction — the official theme of this year’s breakfast — against a widening set of attacks.

“As tough as times have been, we have made some great progress. Thank you for resisting those attacks — whether it was attacks on our LGBTQ+ community, attacks on our immigrant families, attacks on our rights to reproductive health, or the attacks on our voting rights, which are growing more and more intense,” Becerra said. “It’s time to suit up.”

Please find photos from the event below..

Becerra’s Record with the LGBTQ+ Community in Congress, as Attorney General and as Secretary of Health and Human Services:

• One of just 67 of 435 House members to vote against the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996.
• Sued the Trump administration over the transgender military ban.
• Enforced AB 1887, California’s travel ban restricting state-funded travel to states with discriminatory LGBTQ+ laws.
• Took on hate-crime enforcement with particular attention to violence against Black transgender women.
• Affirmed access to transgender healthcare and gender-affirming care, framing those decisions around medical expertise and science.
• Earned endorsements from Alice B. Toklas LGBTQ+ Democratic Club and Equality California.