[ 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
you. how you doing, congressman? good to see you. i saw you on the street and you introduced yourself. how many times have i interviewed you. i was like, beto, i know who you are. let s get right to the folks. we re here for them. i want to get to the questions, start with sabrina robinson who runs her own small business that works on the financial side of film and television industry. thank you. beto. hi. as you well know texas proportionately as as many lgbtq folks as any other state. thanks in no small part to austin. and yet the texas state legislature consistently leads the country in creating discriminatory laws against our own people. how do you change a state like texas to once and for all support human rights for all? thank you for the question. i want to acknowledge the truth of what you re saying, that it