Tom Steyer in CNN LGBT Town Hall

On Crime: Transgendered hate crimes: unequivocally prosecute severely

STEYER: There are citizens in our society who are being targeted for murder as a result of who they are. This is a straightforward attack on humanity itself to kill somebody for who they are. That has got to be the definition of a hate crime. We have got to prosecute those as severely as possible, as a symbol of who we are, a symbol of the thing that we won't put up with. And every prosecutor has got to know that, that this is something that goes to the heart of American equality and justice. And that's got to be straightforward, unequivocal, not a 99 percent rule, a 100 percent rule.

On Foreign Policy: Represent LGBT rights in human rights action abroad

STEYER: I know that there are 71 countries in the world that openly discriminate against members of the LGBTQ community. And I know that the US, as a value-driven country, where we're projecting to the world what we care about, what we're willing to do about it, and the kind of world that we're trying to create with our democracy- and freedom- loving partners, should definitely include a specific attempt to represent the rights of LGBTQ people who live outside the US. So I think it's entirely appropriate as part of our foreign policy to have a person specified for that role, but also to make it clear that part of human rights, part of civil rights, that we expect in our own country, without equivocation, and that we expect people around the world to observe, is the rights of the people in this community. So I would support that.

On Government Reform: 12-year Congressional term limits for generational shift

STEYER: What I have done for the last 10 years is to try and organize Americans at the grassroots to push for justice throughout the society. So in this case, I understand that there may be people in the Congress who will push for the wrong thing, and it seems to me the only real way to push back against them is to go to the grassroots and get the people, their constituents, to push. I've also talked about putting in term limits for congresspeople and senators. One of the things that's true in the United States about attitudes towards the LGBTQ community is that there's been a generational shift. And if we, in fact, push through what I've talked about, that people in D.C. find very awkward and unnerving, 12-year term limits for congresspeople and senators, we'd get a wave of new blood into the Congress of the United States.

On Health Care: Big Pharma charges Americans 10x what they charge abroad

STEYER: We have a group of corporations led, really, by the drug companies who've bought our government. If you look at how we're being treated under law by those companies, it is somewhere between infuriating and scary. They charge us more than they charge any other people in the whole world, sometimes 10 times more for the same drugs. And in this case, they're actually working to preserve long-term extremely valuable monopolies for themselves. But it's much bigger than that. These companies are controlling what's going on in the government. They charge us what they want. We can't go to Canada to buy the same drug much cheaper. And in fact, the government is prevented legally from negotiating with them. What's going on here is we're going to have to break ultimately the power of these corporations to own our government and to control what happens to us.

On Health Care: Directly fund academic research to find cure for AIDS

STEYER: The way that we can go after that is by directing science through universities, through research to solve the problem. So if you look at what Mr. Trump has done, he has cut research funding across the board in every one of his different budgets. I think that's the exact wrong thing to do. What we should be doing in a case like trying to come up with solutions to AIDS, with cures for AIDS, is going directly to the best scientists and funding them as much as necessary, as much as conceivably effective to make sure that we solve this problem.

On Immigration: Trump's border policy is a crime against humanity

STEYER: What we've seen from ICE in terms of inhumanity, this is a perfect example, but it's not the only example. I think it's absolutely critical for the USA to treat people in a humane and decent fashion. It's very obvious that this president and this administration has chosen to not only break the international laws in their treatment of asylum-seekers, but to break the basic laws of humanity. When I think about why I started the "Need to Impeach campaign" two years ago--yeah, he's a criminal; he more than has earned impeachment; but it goes much beyond this, and it goes to exactly this kind of issue. The president of the United States committing crimes against humanity like this, in our name, is something that we should end right now, certainly the first day of my presidency.

On Technology: Collect census data on LGBTQ status

STEYER: What do you mean by they won't be counted on the census? They will not be identified on the census?

Q: Correct; LGBTQ identities will be removed from being asked the question on the census in 2020.

STEYER: I think it's clear that this administration is scared of data that contradicts their underlying beliefs. Look, it is absolutely critical to get the data on subjects like this, because I think that kind of information gives a power to this community politically that is really important. And when I said, how do you make change here? My answer is "grassroots." This kind of data is the proof that at the grassroots the LGBTQ community has real power. So it's absolutely critical that we, in fact, get this information. This is going to be the data that empowers this community to make the changes and to scare the politicians into doing what's right.