LGBTQ opposition ends alliance between hospital and anti-LGBTQ evangelist Franklin Graham

Even during this coronavirus pandemic, LGBTQ people will not stand for anything which could potentially damage our safety or equality. A recent situation in New York involving a hospital and anti-LGBTQ evangelist Franklin Graham proved this point.

From Channel 4 New York:

Mount Sinai Hospital is closing down the field hospital in Central Park after treating 315 patients infected with COVID-19. Local officials, including City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, had called on Mount Sinai Hospital to close the field hospital over Samaritan's Purse's practice of requiring staff to sign a pledge against same-sex marriage. Officials said the field hospital will stop admitting patients by May 4, but it could take two weeks to treat the remaining patients and decontaminate the tents. State Senator Brad Hoylman told NBC New York approximately 40 Samaritan's Purse staffers will stay within the Mount Sinai system, redeployed to Beth Israel Hospital.

The field hospital faced much criticism and protests, not just because of the anti-marriage equality pledge, but also because of  Samaritan's Purse founder Franklin Graham. Graham has made many homophobic as well as Islamophobic statements over the years. 

According to Andy Humm at Gay City News:

Graham has been condemned by the NAACP for “using Christianity as a political weapon.” He has said, “True Islam cannot be practiced in this country” and tried to stop an Islamic cultural center from being built near the World Trade Center. He supported Trump’s call for “a total Muslim ban” in the 2016 campaign. He has condemned Hinduism. He said that “Mormonism is not a Christian faith.” He worked hard in his home state of North Carolina in 2012 to ban not just same-sex marriages, but domestic partnerships. 

His bigotry is so vile that 10 venues in the United Kingdom canceled his bookings for crusades earlier this year. When Graham attacked former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg for being gay, Republican columnist Jennifer Rubin said Graham was “a hypocritical bigot” who “has rationalized Trump’s infidelity and racism, ignored his lies, cheered his inhumane immigration policy, and behaved as a political hack rather than a religious leader.” Graham has even praised Russian strongman Vladimir Putin for taking “a stand to protect his nation’s children from the damaging effects of any gay and lesbian agenda.”

Related post:  Franklin Graham claims he is not homophobic. The paper and video trail exposes him as a liar

In 2016, Trump's promise to protect the LGBTQ community brought people to tears and applause. What now?

When it comes to Donald Trump's war against the LGBTQ community since he took office, actions highlighting  his attacks may seem petty. But what do you do when you have a leader who tries repeatedly to lie and rewrite history. There is no doubt that he will mostly likely try to rewrite the history of his negative relationship with the LGBTQ community.

The first video above is from 2016 when he gave his speech at the Republican National Convention. It highlights the part when he promised to protect the LGBTQ community and how that promise brought some people to tears and on their feet. The second video features the full context which shows that he was merely using us to fan the flames of Islamophobia.

Still,  I wonder, after taking into account all he has done to reduce our rights,  how these people feel now; particularly the Republican mother of the gay son.

From his Administration arguing in front of the Supreme Court that it was legal to fire LGBTQ people simply for our sexual identities or gender expressions to banning trans men and women from serving in the military to opening up his Administration to anti-LGBTQ groups and personalities who have then worked steadily to  strip away even our dignity as taxpayers and basic healthcare protection, Trump has continuously put LGBTQ health and safety at risk. 

It seems to me that Trump's way of protecting the LGBTQ community from religious terrorists was to enact laws and policies which would lead us depressed enough to do ourselves harm before the terrorists even showed up.

Trump obviously manipulated people in those videos. Of course the vast majority of LGBTQ people knew he doing this, but the videos underscore just how evil and insidious that portion of his speech was. Trump was lying to that Republican mother who was rightfully concerned about the livelihood of her gay son. He lied to all of those folks who were brought to their feet . They believed him at his word and some probably voted for him because of what he said. They inaccurately translated his promise to protect us from religious terrorists as blanket protection. It wasn't and I'm sure Trump knew that. 

The rest of us who knew better could be blase. We could say "we told you so," but that would be a mistake. The villain in this piece aren't those those believed Trump, but Trump himself who mostly likely knew at the time that he was bullshitting them. It's something we should never forget, nor let anyone else forget.

Related post - Under Trump, LGBTQ Progress Is Being Reversed in Plain Sight

'Congressman Cicilline - Pandemic relief must include LGBTQ protections ' & other Thur midday news briefs

Congressman David Cicilline

Rep. David Cicilline: Pandemic Relief Must Include LGBTQ Protections - Rep. Cicilline is an openly gay Congressman. He is right on when it comes to this issue and also proves how representation in always important. Don't be afraid of noting and voting for our own (with vetting, of course).

Puerto Rico government sharply criticized over response to LGBTQ murders - We got serious problems in Puerto Rico and the government isn't doing what it's supposed to do.

Lesbians, gays live in fear of attacks in Kenyan refugee camp - the struggle is real, y'all. 

Biden Helped Make LGBT History—Will That Be Enough? - He's not Trump is enough for me, but this helps.

The Family Research Council wants your money to help it stop . . . 'the return of 'Obamaphones?''

Just in case you have nothing better to do with your money (like saving it up because of COVID-19, buying supplies because of COVID-19, donating to hospitals or wonderful charities because of COVID-19), hate group the Family Research Council wants you to contribute to its fundraiser.

I'll spare you the link, but as you can see by the graphic above,  FRC and its president Tony Perkins, your donation will help them fight the "evil liberal" influences such as (in the group's own words):

carbon emission mandates, 

visa extensions for immigrants, 

a postal bailout, corporate pay equity, 

the return of “Obamaphones,” and more!

This list gets me angry on so many levels. The most noticeable being where the hell are the "radical homosexuals?" We're not even on the list nor in any of the rest of the fundraising appeal. Do we not make enough money for FRC anymore? We got dumped over Obamaphones?

Come on folks, there has to be a drag queen reading to children somewhere in the country!

'ICE being sued for holding trans migrants in COVID-19 'death traps' & other Wed midday news briefs

ICE faces class action lawsuit for holding transgender migrants in COVID-19 “death traps” - I have very few f@ks to give lately so I say "take all of the money!"

Council of Dads' J. August Richards on Black Gay Visibility's Power - PREACH!!

LGBTQ groups seek safeguards against COVID-19 discrimination - Cause goodness knows we would be in danger without them. 

Doctor stripped of license during pandemic over sexist & anti-LGBTQ social media posts - See response in first item. Some changes but sentiment still the same.

'Congratulations' to Donald Trump for making America 'first in the world'

Based upon this above video, Donald Trump used the coronavirus pandemic to make America first in several things. And based on the video below, he so humble, he refuses to take "credit" for it. But he would like if folks showed some appreciation for all of his "work"

Just think, with his homophobic point man Roger Severino guiding in an attempt to remove LGBTQ health protections, Trump could make LGBTQ people specifically first in the some of the same categories. So much damn winning. And yes for the people in the back, that was sarcasm. 

Meet Roger Severino - Trump's point man in putting LGBTQ health in danger during the COVID-19 pandemic

Trump appointee Roger Severino's anti-LGBTQ agenda could damage LGBTQ health during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the middle of a pandemic which is causing more American deaths than the Vietnam War, the Trump Administration is working to remove LGBTQ healthcare protections. And no one seems to be raising a sufficient amount of hell about it.

We should not only point the finger at Trump, but also Roger Severino, Director of the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. He has also been Trump's point man in the attempted removal of healthcare protections from LGBTQ people.   Last year, he spearheaded an HHS attempted rule which would have allowed healthcare workers to deny basic care based upon "moral or religious" reasons. In November, three different federal courts struck down the rule and one court found that HHS exaggerated a justification for the rule. Severino was pointed out in an NPR article to have contributed to that exaggeration. 

Severino's initial appointment caused controversy - although not enough to keep him from being appointed - because he was previously employed by anti-LGBTQ organizations such as the Heritage Foundation and the Becket Fund. When employed by those groups, his job was mostly to undermine LGBTQ equality and safety.

According to GLAAD, Severino:

Criticized bans on scientifically-discredited “reparative therapy” and labeled being LGBT as being “against your biology”: “Unfortunately you’re seeing some states that are actually trying to criminalize any sex therapy that reinforces a person’s biology. They’re calling into question and passing bans on reparative therapy, is one name for it. And so it’s really an ideology that’s saying you can only go one way, against your biology, but if you try to do anything that enforces it, then we’re going to criminalize it.” (clip begins at 20:18 in audio a link) 

Insisted that anti-LGBTQ views are “actually decent and honorable beliefs based not on any sort of hatred but, in fact, out of love. It’s a vision of human flourishing, people who believe in marriage and believe in a biblical view of human sexuality, it’s out of love and because you believe this is the proper vision for human flourishing that leads to happiness and leads to childhood success, and there’s a lot of social science evidence backing those statements up.” (clip begins at 7:15 in audio at link)

Wrote a joint Op-Ed with former Senator and anti-LGBT activist Jim Demint,  in which he maligned the complexity of gender identity by insisting transgender rights supporters see sex as “merely a placeholder’ assigned at birth,’ much like a Social Security number, only far easier to change.” In same piece, he slighted trans teen Gavin Grimm as “a gender-dysphoric teen girl.” 

Said of LGBT rights: “...same-sex marriage was merely the start, not end, of the left’s LGBT agenda. The radical left is using government power to coerce everyone, including children, into pledging allegiance to a radical new gender ideology over and above their right to privacy, safety, and religious freedom.”

Since being appointed, Severino's actions have justified all of the concern LGBTQ people and our advocates  have had. Other than the "healthcare conscience" debacle in November,  Severino spearheaded a proposal which critics claimed would "legally erase the trans identity" and another proposal which would allow faith-based foster care and adoption agencies to have access to tax dollars even while discriminating against LGBTQ people.

When he was appointed, no one was fooled about Severino's purpose. He was to undermine LGBTQ health and equality as much as possible.  It was so obvious that a lot of people - particularly the media - was nonchalant and blase about the subject. 

Just how blase and nonchalant will people be if Severino's homophobic agenda causes LGBTQ people to die during this pandemic?