While President Donald Trump campaigned in Minneapolis on Thursday night, U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar and eight other 2020 Democratic candidates focused on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights at a CNN town hall.
Seth Owen of Florida, once forced into conversion therapy by his parents, asked Klobuchar about her view of the widely discredited process of attempting to change a person's sexual orientation.
"We know this isn't the right thing to do," she said, adding that it should be illegal. Former U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke of Texas also called for a ban.
The Minnesota Democrat said that she supports allowing nonbinary people to choose "X" as their gender on official documents. She contrasted her stance to that of Trump, "who spends his time dividing people in any way he can."
Klobuchar also said that pharmaceutical companies should make HIV and AIDS drugs more affordable.
The Los Angeles forum, which was co-sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign, was interrupted several times by transgender activists.
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts was asked how she'd respond to an assertion that marriage is between one man and one woman. She said she assumed the theoretical query would be from a man.
Her reply, she said: "Then just marry one woman. I'm cool with that." After a pause, she added to laughter from the audience: "If you can find one."
