NEW YORK — Hillary Clinton told an audience of LGBT advocates Thursday night that the progress they’ve achieved in recent years may not be secure under the Donald Trump administration, and urged them to keep fighting.

“I know that the election hit a lot of us hard,” Clinton said of her bitter loss to Trump in November. “But I can tell you this: Even when it feels tempting to pull the covers over your head, please keep going.”

The audience at the fundraising dinner for The Center, an LGBT community group in New York, greeted Clinton with multiple standing ovations and cheers as she accepted the organization’s Trailblazer Award.

One of the biggest cheers came when she reiterated remarks she made in Geneva in 2011 as secretary of state: “Gay rights are human rights, and human rights are gay rights.”

“But I think we have to face the fact that we may not ever be able to count on this administration to lead on LGBT issues,” Clinton said. “Let’s remember, 2018, the midterm elections ... We can never stop fighting.”

It wasn’t just in the U.S., Clinton said, that “we’re seeing clouds gathering on the horizon.”

“We’ve heard terrifying accounts from Chechnya of gay and bisexual men being taken from their homes and families, tortured, even killed,” she said. “The United States government — yes, this government — should demand an end to the persecution of innocent people.”

In America, she said, “the progress that we fought for ... that we celebrated and maybe even (took) for granted may not be as secure as we once expected.”

She spoke of protections for transgender students being rescinded, and proposed cuts in funding for HIV and AIDS research.