Democratic presidential candidates convened on October 26 at the 2019 People’s Presidential Forum in Las Vegas to field Nevada residents’ questions regarding priorities for the next president.

During presidential candidate Julián Castro’s time on the stage, a transgender activist and Air Force veteran asked Castro what he would do to commit to appointing Supreme Court justices that will protect the LGBTQ+ community, noting the struggles that transgender soldiers and LGBTQ+ workers experience at the hands of Trump’s narrow-minded Supreme Court appointees.

In response, Castro expressed his support for LGBTQ+ policies to address the harassment and discrimination, saying, “We’re not going to have second-class citizens in this country; in every single way, what we want to make sure is that no matter who you are that you can’t be discriminated against.”

Castro continued, “I recognize that some people say ‘This is part of my faith,’ and ‘This is what I believe.’ I’m Catholic, and I respect people’s faith. But when it starts to discriminate against somebody and to hurt them, we need to protect individuals’ ability to exercise their own rights and live freely in this country. Those are the kinds of things that I would fight for, as well as appointing justices to the Supreme Court that recognize the LGBT community as a protected class in legal parlance.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders also raised the importance of the courts when asked about racial disparities in reproductive health, stressing the need for “judges who 100% support Roe v Wade” to start to mitigate the problem.