Friday, June 12, 2020

Repost - Trump broke all of the promises he made to the LGBTQ community, but the media doesn't care enough to ask why

Editor's note - With the news today that the Trump Administration has rolled back LGBTQ non-discrimination healthcare protections and a decision by SCOTUS with regards to LGBTQ job protections (the Trump Administration argued against LGBTQ  job protections) coming out any day now and probably not looking good for us, I am reposting this piece I published in 2018.  Now it's highly pertinent.  Trump promised to fight for our people and as it turns out, he lied. We all knew that he would, but the most important thing is making sure everyone KNOW that he lied. And uniting with those who give a damn.




An annoying mantra constantly repeated by Trump supporters in praising his performance, particularly conservative evangelical groups and public figures, is "promises made, promises kept."

But that's a damn lie.

I remember that Trump, while running for office, made promises to the LGBTQ community (see the video above).

According to Newsweek:

During his 2016 presidential campaign, then-Republican candidate Donald Trump boasted his advocacy for LGBT Americans. "Thank you to the LGBT community! I will fight for you while Hillary brings in more people that will threaten your freedoms and beliefs," he wrote in a June, 2016 tweet.
This tweet below as a matter of fact:





The Newsweek article also points out that in his first year in office, Trump backpedaled on supporting the LGBTQ community, particularly calling for a ban on transgender men and women serving in the military. 

Vox goes into more detail as to all the ways the Trump Administration practically declared war on the LGBTQ community during his first year in office:


  • He tried to reinstate a ban on trans people joining and openly serving in the military. The Obama administration in 2016 announced plans to reverse the ban in 2017. But Trump, in a series of tweets last July, announced he would bring it back, arguing that trans-related health care is expensive. (Research from the RAND Corporation indicates that it would make up “a 0.04- to 0.13-percent increase in active-component health care expenditures.”) So far, Trump’s ban has been stymied by the courts — and trans people are now allowed to openly enlist and serve.
  • Trump appointed Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court to replace the consistently anti-LGBTQ Antonin Scalia. Although Gorsuch had a vague record on LGBTQ rights when he was nominated, civil rights advocates argued that, based on some of his past writings on marriage equality and religious issues, he could be a big opponent for LGBTQ equality. In just a few months on the bench, Gorsuch has proven advocates right; for one, he dissented against a Supreme Court ruling that requires states to list same-sex parents on birth certificates.
  • The Trump administration rescinded a nonbinding Obama-era guidance that told K-12 schools that receive federal funding that trans students are protected under federal civil rights law and, therefore, schools should respect trans students’ rights, including their right to use bathrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identity. The Trump administration took back the guidance altogether, arguing trans students aren’t protected under federal civil rights law.
  • Trump’s Justice Department also rescinded another Obama-era memo that said trans workers are protected under civil rights law. This has enabled the federal government, including its army of attorneys, to now argue in court that anti-trans discrimination isn’t illegal under federal law. The courts are ultimately independent of the Trump administration, but the federal government can play a big role in legal arguments by throwing its people and resources behind a case.
  • In a major Supreme Court case, Masterpiece Cakeshop Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, the Trump administration argued in court in favor of Masterpiece Cakeshop, a bakery that’s claiming First Amendment rights to discriminate against same-sex couples. The case could have potentially enormous repercussions — opening a big loophole in anti-discrimination laws, particularly those that protect LGBTQ people, by letting business owners cite religious or moral justifications to discriminate.
  • Trump’s Justice Department argued that anti-gay discrimination is legal, filing a friend-of-the-court brief claiming that the federal Civil Rights Act doesn’t protect gay and bisexual workers. The lawsuit in this case was filed by Donald Zarda, a skydiving instructor who says an employer, Altitude Express, fired him due to his sexual orientation. The Justice Department in effect argued that this was legal under federal law.
  • The Trump administration sent out a “religious liberty” guidance to federal agencies, essentially asking them to respect “religious-liberty protections” in all of the federal government’s work. It’s unclear what kind of impact the guidance will have, but LGBTQ organizations worry that it will be used to justify discrimination against LGBTQ people within the federal government and its work.
  • The Department of Health and Human Services enacted a new regulation and created an agency, the Division of Conscience and Religious Freedom, that will purportedly work to ensure health care providers’ religious liberties aren’t violated. LGBTQ groups argue this agency will effectively give doctors, nurses, and other medical staff cover to discriminate against LGBTQ people, because providers will now get protection from the federal government if they cite religious or moral objections to refuse service to LGBTQ patients.
  • Without explanation, Trump fired all the members of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS. “It’s outstanding,” Isaacs said. “HIV isn’t only in the LGBTQ community, but it largely is.”

In addition, according to an article earlier this year in Politico, the Trump Administration's actions at the Department of Health and Human Services was a part of a larger move to dismantle LGBTQ health initiatives in general.

 The changes at the Department of Health and Human Services represent "rapid destruction of so much of the progress on LGBT health," said Kellan Baker, a researcher at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health who worked with HHS on LGBT issues for nearly a decade. “It’s only a matter of time before all the gains made under the Obama administration are reversed under the Trump administration, for purposes that have nothing to do with public health and have everything to do with politics.”

Meanwhile, he has practically given the evangelical right the keys to the candy shop. Trump seems to work on the idea of "I'll do for you if you do for me," so he is giving conservative evangelicals all sorts of access because they voted for him in a large number. But that's not how our president should act. He should represent us all, not just a small cadre of entitled fake Christians willing to ignore their own-so-called integrity enough to close their eyes, pucker up, and kiss his ass.

And on that same note, I find it sad that the media hasn't made enough noise about this. We know why Fox News won't do it, but there has to be some members of the media out there will to tackle this issue and begin the conversation. The way Trump has betrayed the LGBTQ community thus far should be a metaphor as to how corrupt and vile his Administration is (and will be remember as such in history if I have anything to say about it.) By his broken promises, Trump is sending a message to the LGBTQ community that we don't matter in HIS America. We already know that the evangelical right doesn't think we matter in any version of America. But the media's ignoring of this issue pretty much says they also feel that we don't matter.

And that's the saddest realization of them all. 

'Holy gaslighting! GOP issues brief on Trump's LGBTQ 'achievements'' & other Fri midday news briefs

Trump is trying to gaslight LGBTQ people again.

Republican Party issues brief on Trump’s LGBTQ achievements. Seriously. - I refuse to even give these idiots points for nerve. This gaslighting is a major insult.

21 Black Queer-Owned Brands And Designers To Support Right Now - Write them down and remember them. 

Gay Pride embraces its roots by teaming up with U.S. black activists - Damn right.