Toni Atkins is our state’s first ever openly gay woman Speaker of the State Assembly. She is a champion for equality and LGBT rights and has fought to:

• Allow transgender Californians official records, including birth and death certificates reflect who they really are
• Include LGBT cultural competency in continuing medical education requirements
• Include “gender identity” and “gender expression” in anti-discrimination laws where only the term “gender” currently appears.
• Ensure transgender students have access to bathrooms in line with their gender identity
• Modernize California birth certificates by allowing parents to choose to self-designate as “father,” “mother” or “parent”
• Eliminate the “gay panic” and “trans panic” defenses
• Urge the FDA to change blood donation policies so they are based on modern science not outdated fears
• Ban so-called “reparative therapy”
• Create a $3 million pilot program for outreach, screenings, and linkages to underserved individuals at high-risk of HIV infection – with San Diego County receiving $2.1 million
• Appropriate $1.5 million in federal Ryan White funding to local health and community organizations to re-engage HIV-infected minority clients in care
• Provide over $3 million for HIV education outreach, screenings, and increasing access to care for underserved individuals
• Invest millions and increase the income limit for AIDS Drug Assistance Program helping thousands of San Diego families
• Direct $6.5 million to HCV treatment costs in ADAP
• Allocate $2.2 million for a PrEP Access and Affordability Pilot Program.

October 13, 2016