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Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel discussed Kamala Harris’ record defending the rights of LGBTQ+ Americans — and channeled the movie star and gun rights activist Charlton Heston to deliver a message to Republicans who are trying to take away those rights.
Nessel, the state’s first openly gay attorney general, took the stage at the third night of the DNC on Wednesday to tout Harris’ record protecting same sex marriage when she was attorney general in California.
“In 2011, she refused to defend California’s ban on same sex marriage. She refused to argue that some families should have fewer rights than other families. It meant a lot. She was fighting for families like mine,” Nessel told the crowd in Chicago.
The Michigan AG said she faced a similar situation in 2022, when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade and her state’s “archaic abortion ban was resurrected.”
In his concurring opinion to reverse Roe, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas suggested that the Supreme Court should also “reconsider” the rulings protecting the right to contraception, same-sex relationships, and same-sex marriage.
Nessel then took a line from Charlton Heston, the actor-turned-president of the National Rifle Association. Heston, one of Hollywood’s biggest movie stars of the 1950s, informed Democrats in 2000 that they wouldn’t be able to strip him of his gun unless they took it from his “cold, dead hands.”
She put her own spin on the now-famous line: “I got a message for the Republicans and the justices of the United States Supreme Court: You can pry this wedding band from my cold, dead, gay hand!” She joked: “And I’m retaining a lot of water, so good luck with that!”
The crowd erupted into cheers.
“Just as the same sex marriage ban was overturned in California, so too was the abortion ban in Michigan,” Nessel added.
“I know that whether she’s attorney general or president of the United States, Kamala Harris will always be in our corner,” the Michigan AG said.
Nessel also took a few jabs at Donald Trump.
She pointed out that the former president not only appointed half of the Supreme Court justices who decided to reverse the landmark ruling but also is now facing his own legal battles: “We know that she will appoint Supreme Court justices who will protect our freedoms. And let me tell ya, Kamala knows you go from the courthouse to the White House and not the other way around.”
Later in the evening, the convention heard from Minnesota Governor and Harris running mate Tim Walz, when he accepted the vice presidential nomination.
