Trump’s War on the LGBTQ+ Community
By Ellie Polyak
Trump’s hand in hand run with racism, bigotry, and prejudice isn’t anything hidden from the public; in particular, his conflicting message on the LGBTQ+ community. He has danced around vaguely accepting social progress and the community to saying he would “seriously consider” a Supreme Justice who would outlaw same sex marraige. But recently the Supreme Court has put barriers in place to protect trans and same sex attracted individuals from workplace discrimination, a huge blow to Trump and his conservative following.
While celebrating appointing the first openly gay man to the level of Cabinet secretary, his administration has continusously chooses to resist protections for gay, lesbian, and transgender individuals to appease his more conservative followers. Below is a list, provided by HRC.org/Trump, that discusses his persistent, self described “unprecedented” steps to undermine and eliminate LGBTQ+ rights. To quote HRC president, Alphonso David, “The Trump-Pence administration is the most virulently anti-LGBTQ administration in decades -- the RNC cannot put lipstick on a pig.”
The first, and most obvious, attack is the opposition to the Equality Act. Despite support by an overwhelming majority of the U.S. population, President Trump opposed the Equality Act. In May, the House passed the Equality Act, to promise protection to LGBTQ+ individuals across the key areas of life, including employment, housing, credit, education, public spaces and services, federally funded programs, and jury services. The Equality Act would amend existing civil rights law—including the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Fair Housing Act, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, the Jury Selection and Services Act, and several laws regarding employment with the federal government—to explicitly include sexual orientation and gender identity as protected characteristics. The legislation also amends the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to prohibit discrimination in public spaces and services and federally funded programs on the basis of sex. (https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/5/text) May 14th, 2019 is the date that Donald Trump explicitly described his opposition to The Equality Act. His administration stated in an interview, “The Trump administration absolutely opposes discrimination of any kind and supports the equal treatment of all," the official stated. "However, this bill in its current form is filled with poison pills that threaten to undermine parental and conscience rights.”
President Trump has appointed anti-LGBTQ+ judges with alarming anti-LGBTQ+ records, including anti-equality Supreme Court Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh and federal nominees Kacsmaryk, Mateer, Bounds, Vitter. Menashi and others. People like these in such positions threaten the safety of a large population of people and threaten the framework of the promised equality our constitution and country was made on.
Trump not only has made legal and federal advancements to undermine the LGBTQ+ community, but expresses casual comments about him and his administration that show his true colors and the disgusting behavior of those he calls politicians. He states, about Vice President, Mike Pence and his anti-gay agenda in early 2017, “Don’t ask that guy—he wants to hang them all!”
He also has attacked the healthcare system regarded LGBTQ+ individuals by undermining the Section 1557 Rule, advocating to eliminate The Affordable Care Act, jeopardizing those lower income communities who make up for a large majority of the 130+ million people with HIV along with those outside of the LGBTQ+ community. Another direct attack against individuals plagued by aids is his proposition to cut the PEPFAR budget by over $1.35 million. PEPFAR is the U.S. government program to fight AIDS abroad. He has created a Religious Discrimination Division to protect physicians who deny care to LGBTQ+ community. To reiterate something stated above, he threatens the safety, livelihood, and living of the common citizen of America.
To see the rest of his “unprecedented” steps that attack the LGBTQ+ community, view HRC’s article on his undermining of gay, lesbian, trans, etc individuals.
https://www.hrc.org/blog/the-list-of-trumps-unprecedented-steps-for-the-lgbtq-community