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| Bachmann |
Expect me to throw this post in the face of the entire lgbt community. Why? Because today is the day the lgbt community needs to start taking this election extra seriously. No matter how many mistakes Trump makes or how far down he is in the polls, he is still running for president, which means until the election is over, he has a chance of winning.
And if he does, it's not going to be pretty for the lgbt community. The following item from Right Wing Watch says plainly why:
Today, Donald Trump’s campaign announced the formation of his Evangelical Executive Advisory Board, which includes right-wing figures ranging from ex-Rep. Michele Bachmann to Focus on the Family founder James Dobson. After retiring from Congress on the heels of a campaign scandal, Bachmann has not let up in her radical preaching. According to Bachmann, the September 11 attacks represented God’s judgment on America; President Obama and gay rights advocates are bringing about the End Times; homosexuality is “personal enslavement” and “part of Satan”; gay people want to change laws “so that adults will be able to freely prey on little children sexually”; and Obamacare death panels will literally kill people any day now
. . . .Dobson, who once said that he could not support Trump, has a long history with the anti-LGBT Right, warning that gay marriage will lead to a second civil war and pastors going to prison, as well as ushering in the destruction of religious freedom, God’s judgment on America and the transformation of the U.S. into Nazi Germany. He even linked same-sex marriage to the Sandy Hook shooting. Other board members include Richard Land, who claims gay people are satanic and once lost a radio show after making racist, plagiarized statements, and Harry Jackson, a Maryland pastor who preaches about gay people trying to recruit children and prays against the demons behind same-sex marriage . . .
Dobson
. . . The group also include Southern Baptist pastor Ronnie Floyd, who has written about how “Satan has taken his tool of homosexuality, a gross and evil sin, and done a con job on the American culture.” Also on the list is Robert Jeffress, who “believes that gays and lesbians are ‘perverse’ people who are either pedophiles or likely to abuse children in the future; has compared homosexuality to bestiality and called it ‘a miserable lifestyle’; accused gay people of using ‘brainwashing techniques’ to have homosexuality ‘crammed down our throats’; said that gay people ‘are engaged in the most detestable, unclean, abominable acts you can imagine’; predicted that the gay rights movement ‘will pave the way for that future world dictator, the Antichrist’; and labeled homosexuality a ‘filthy practice’ that will lead to the ‘implosion of our country.’”
In spite of what Trump has said in the past about being a friend to the lgbt community, he is building a "Legion of Homophobia" (I will not refer to this group as religious leaders. They are a "legion," as in the name of the devils Jesus cast out of a person in the Bible) which will follow him to the White House and help create policy.
And I will give you one guess whether or not that policy will be lgbt-friendly.
In the lgbt community, the practice is usually we get beaten down, maligned, and scandalized until we can't take anymore and start "acting up." It is then we start becoming engaged and determined to make changes - after the blows have been struck against us. That simply won't do in this case because our engagement generally takes place AFTER we have been done dirty. In this particular case, we have a chance to stop the "dirty deeds" before they take place.
Yes, Trump is a comical fool and yes he is making mistake after mistake. But with this "legion" he has just created, Trump cannot be taken lightly. Now is the time for us to inject some serious opposition towards him. The surest way for him to win is for folks not to take that possibility seriously.
What is the lgbt community prepared to do now instead of later? Will we stop the flow of anti-lgbt backlash before it starts or will we be forced to play catch up yet again?
We know where Trump stands and we are familiar with the players of his latest game. Let's not wait to engage him and them in the arena of public opinion and debate until after the fact.
