Freedom, Equality & Opportunity
LGBTQ+ & Immigrant Rights
America is strongest when everyone can live safely, freely, and with dignity, but right now, those fundamental values are under attack.
Across the country, Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans are pushing an extreme agenda rooted in fear, division, and exclusion. They are targeting immigrant communities with mass arrests, expanded detention, and invasive surveillance, while attacking LGBTQ+ Americans by restricting health care, censoring identities, and rolling back fundamental civil rights.
These coordinated attacks are not happening in isolation. They are part of a broader effort to decide who belongs, who is protected, and who is allowed to live openly in this country.
The consequences are real and immediate. Families are being separated and forced to live in fear. Access to health care and accurate identity documents for LGBTQ+ people is being threatened. Workers, families, and small businesses are being disrupted as entire communities are destabilized. And even in Massachusetts, where we’ve long led on inclusion and equality, these national efforts create uncertainty and put hard-won rights at risk.
That’s why Ed is fighting every day to protect the promise of this country—freedom, equality, and opportunity for all. He’s working to expand civil rights, defend LGBTQ+ Americans, protect immigrant families with fair and humane policies, and ensure everyone can live with dignity, safety, and equal treatment under the law.
LGBTQ+ Equality
Ed has spent his career standing up for LGBTQ+ rights, and he is not backing down now.
At a time when extremists are trying to divide communities and roll back progress, Ed is fighting to expand protections, defend access to care, and ensure that every LGBTQ+ person is treated with dignity and respect. He believes that no one should be discriminated against because of who they are or who they love—and that the federal government has a responsibility to make that promise real.
- Fighting to guarantee equal rights under federal law by working to protect LGBTQ+ people from discrimination in employment, housing, health care, and education.
- Standing up for transgender rights and protecting access to lifesaving care by leading efforts to codify a “Transgender Bill of Rights” to ensure legal recognition, safety, and equal treatment nationwide, while expanding access to gender-affirming health care and investing in providers so people can get the care they need, no matter where they live.
- Taking on hate and violence directly by banning the use of so-called “panic” defenses that attempt to justify violence against LGBTQ+ people.
- Ensuring equal opportunity to serve by protecting the rights of transgender Americans to serve openly in the military without discrimination.
- Defending LGBTQ+ rights globally by establishing permanent U.S. leadership to combat discrimination, violence, and criminalization of LGBTQ+ people around the world.
Current Legislation:
- Lead Sponsor: Transgender Bill of Rights (S.Res.604)
- Lead Sponsor: Transgender Health Care Access Act (S.3206 )
- Lead Sponsor: LGBTQ+ Panic Defense Prohibition Act of 2025 (S.2201)
- Lead Sponsor: International Human Rights Defense Act of 2025 (S.3426)
- Lead Sponsor: Greater Leadership Overseas for the Benefit of Equality Act (S.2231)
- Original Co-Sponsor: Fit to Serve Act (S.2006)
- Original Co-Sponsor: Equality Act (S.1503)
- Original Co-Sponsor: Refund Equality Act of 2025 (S.2197)
Immigrant Justice & Opportunity
Ed believes immigration policy should reflect our values—fairness, dignity, and respect for human rights.
He has been a leading voice for reform, becoming the first U.S. Senator to call for the abolition of ICE, advocating to protect humanitarian relief programs, and working to replace a broken system that harms families and undermines civil liberties.
Ed is standing up to policies that target immigrants unfairly, ensuring individuals receive due process and fair treatment throughout the immigration process, and recognizing the real-world impact on families, children, Dreamers, and the communities and local economies that depend on them.
- Defending privacy and civil liberties while ensuring accountability by banning the use of facial recognition and other invasive surveillance technologies by immigration enforcement agencies, and eliminating the legal shield that protects federal law enforcement officials from consequences when they violate constitutional rights.
- Ensuring a fair and transparent path to citizenship by protecting the naturalization process so that eligible individuals can become citizens without arbitrary delays or barriers, expanding refugee admissions to ensure the U.S. remains a safe haven for those fleeing persecution, and protecting humanitarian programs such as Temporary Protected Status for immigrants who cannot safely return home.
- Protecting immigrant families and communities from harmful enforcement actions by conducting robust oversight, bringing together a coalition of immigration and community groups, and creating support for small businesses affected by sudden immigration crackdowns, so that workers, families, and local economies aren’t left behind.
- Improving conditions and accountability in ICE detention by establishing strong national standards, conducting in-person inspections and oversight, calling for a ban on the use of solitary confinement, and working to end inhumane conditions in immigration detention facilities.
- Protecting vulnerable children and standing with Dreamers by strengthening safeguards for unaccompanied children to ensure fair treatment and legal protections, while also advocating for a pathway to legal residency for Dreamers so they can live, work, and contribute without fear of deportation.
Current Legislation:
- Lead Sponsor: GRACE Act (S.3535)
- Lead Sponsor: ICE Out of Our Faces Act (S.3779)
- Lead Sponsor: Qualified Immunity Abolition Act of 2026 (S.3625)
- Lead Sponsor: Small Business ICE Disruption Fund Act (S.3884)
- Lead Sponsor: Naturalization and Oath Ceremony Protection Act (S.3568)
- Original Co-Sponsor: Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act (S.3702)
- Original Co-Sponsor: Upholding Protections for Unaccompanied Children Act of 2025 (S.3322)
- Original Co-Sponsor: Protect DREAMer Confidentiality Act of 2025 (S.2350)
- Original Co-Sponsor: SECURE Act (S. 2106)
- Co-Sponsor: VISIBLE Act (S.2212)
