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| A gay Trump supporter claims that Trump is working for supposed 'true equality.' |
I've already had one negative run-in with gay conservative writer Chad Felix Greene after he falsely labeled my blog as "anti-Christian" and I am simply itching for another opportunity.
Lo and behold, the opportunity comes knocking after an inane piece he recently posted in the right-wing propaganda sheet The Federalist. Greene's piece, No, White House Website Updates Don’t Mean Trump Is Trying To ‘Erase’ LGBT People, is a full-throttled defense of Trump's record when it comes to the LGBTQ community. It's not what he says that's the issue. It's what he omits. Here are some snippets:
Unfortunately, LGBT advocacy seems fixated on public validation over quiet integration and insists on a segregated platform in which to display leftist social and legal achievements. President Trump failing to openly acknowledge LGBT politics supposedly signaled the beginning of hostility now that he was in power, despite no evidence to support such an assertion.
Trump has appointed five openly LGBT ambassadors and U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Patrick Bumatay. Vice President Mike Pence met with the openly gay Irish prime minister and his partner and publicly praised openly gay Olympic athletes amid controversy over his perceived anti-LGBT views. Trump honored hero police officer and openly gay Crystal Griner with the Medal of Honor after her bravery in saving Rep. Steve Scalise and other Republican members of Congress during an attempted assassination.
. . .If Trump were truly struggling to contain his hatred for gay and trans people, you could imagine he would have acted out in actual hostility toward them by now. LGBT media and advocacy certainly have given him plenty of reason to do so.
One major distinction between President Barack Obama and Trump is that the latter does not seem to need the highly segmented approval of hundreds of grievance groups in order to feel he is doing a good job. For the right, this represents a more equal-opportunity leader who focuses on issues and not virtue signaling. For the left, it seems to indicate deep and intentional disregard for the well-being of groups they believe deserve special acknowledgement.
As a gay person, I prefer the right’s view on this. If what Trump’s administration is doing is “erasing” LGBT people, then being erased must be the same thing as equality and assimilation — and that looks like progress to me.
Greene is extremely clueless and the only thing holding this piece together is how he dresses up his obliviousness as intelligence. He implies that Trump is doing more than "virtue signaling" to the LGBTQ community, but then provides examples which add up to nothing but tokenism.
Trump appointing five openly gay ambassadors and a judge means nothing compared to the fact that he is also the same guy
whose Administration is full of prominent anti-LGBTQ spokespeople, such as Roger Severino, who spearheaded a rule change in which could have allowed healthcare providers to refuse to provide care to members of the LGBTQ community by using religious beliefs as an excuse. The rule change was struck down by two different courts.
whose Administration has said in front of the Supreme Court that LGBTQs should not have protection against workplace discrimination.
who aligns himself with evangelicals who are known for smearing the LGBTQ community as "filthy" and "of Satan."
who would allow adoption agencies to discriminate against potential LGBTQ parents while continuing to receive tax dollars.
who has virtually declared war on the transgender community by banning them from military service based upon faulty reasoning, undermining them receiving decent health care, and undermining efforts to protect trans youth in schools.
And on that same note, why should it matter that Pence met with an openly gay prime minister or praised gay athletes when one takes into account that his entire political career is comprised of targeting, lying on, and demonizing the LGBTQ community.
It doesn't matter how many gay judges Trump appoints (probably because they fit his conservative ideology) or how many gay foreign leaders Pence greets (because he has to) because none of it erases the fact that this Administration is not the LGBTQ community's best friend. None of it alleviates any justifiable fears that if Trump is not trying to erase the LGBTQ community, he's doing a damn good job of acting like it's a goal.
Greene implies that Trump is giving us the tools to "assimilate" because in his (Greene's) eyes, assimilation adds up to true equality. But with his support of Trump, one gets the impression that Greene's idea of "assimilation" seems to be eliminating or undermining those who don't fit his definition of being an LGBTQ. One gets the impression that Greene is saying "Trump is not trying to erase the LGBTQ community. He's merely attempting to get rid of the undesirable ones."
As one of those "undesirables" (African-American, gay, and a non "straight-acting" individual who loves Judy Garland songs, Bette Davis movies, and "working the runway" walks), I think the problem is with Greene and any other LGBTQs who support Trump.
Y'all can act stupid, but don't expect the rest of us to do the same. We know a rat when we see one, even if the rat is presently squatting in the Oval Office. And we damn sure know when one of our own is attempting to gaslight us.
2 comments:
And, just wait until you're no longer useful...
You needed say no more after you wrote Greene works at The Federalist. A bunch of greedy liars.
But I got a kick out of Greene complaining that Obama cared about all groups in his constituency. He referred to a catering. I'm sure at the time he was calling Obama divider, not a uniter. Remember all that crap? He's just your typical republican, a hypocrite and a fool.
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