Trump is not an LGBTQ ally, he is our worst nightmare
In 2016, candidate Donald Trump held up a pride flag and excited some queer conservatives by uttering the term “LGBTQ.” However, as president he went on to amass the worst record in modern presidential history of both dangerous and vitriolic attempts – some successful – to strip away our hard earned rights.
Here are thirteen times Donald Trump has harmed our community:
- After claiming to be supportive of our community, he immediately banned trans soldiers from serving in the Armed Forces; and he kicked HIV positive soldiers out of the military based solely on their medical status.
- He stripped away Obama/Biden era non-discrimination protections.
- He issued a license to discriminate against LGBTQ federal contractors.
- He created a religious discrimination division within the Department of Health and Human Services to defend medical professionals who refuse treatment to queer patients because of religious bias.
- He has strongly and openly opposed protecting LGBTQ Americans by opposing the Equality Act.
- He stripped away Obama/Biden era guidance protecting trans students in public schools, going so far as to reject civil rights complaints filed on behalf of trans youth.
- He used Title IX to discriminate against trans students, essentially advocating for them to be barred from playing team sports in school.
- He allowed homeless members of the trans community to be turned away from emergency shelters by directing the Department of Housing and Urban Development to change existing rules.
- He removed an Obama/Biden era policy protecting trans prisoners and forced them into prisons not consistent with their gender identity. This increased cases of rape and sexual assault.
- He has refused asylum applications from queer asylum seekers, sending them back to nations where they face certain death.
- He has refused partner visas to LGBTQ diplomats.
- He has forced parentless children to remain in overcrowded foster care systems by allowing taxpayer funded foster and adoption programs to discriminate against LGBTQ parents; as well as denying citizenship to children born via surrogacy.
- He has erased LGBTQ Americans from being mentioned on federal websites, removed trans people from HHS definitions of gender, and attempted to make sure that our marriages were not counted in the census.
Most importantly he has opened the window to strip away decades of progress by filing our federal courts with vitriolic and often unqualified judges who could strip away our marriages, end employment protections, over turn bans on so-called “conversion therapy,” and possibly over turn the 17 year-old decision that ended the criminality of gay and lesbian couples from having sex.
He capped this danger just this week by pushing through the confirmation of his 3rd anti-LGBTQ Supreme Court Justice. Make no mistake, if he is reelected, we face the real and present danger of losing everything we have gained.
“Joe Biden is the uncle who defended you at every step of your coming out process and Trump is the one who cut you out of the will.“
In contrast, our community has no stronger an ally than Joe Biden. The former Vice-President was the driving force behind the historic progress championed by the Obama Administration. He pushed President Obama to support the freedom to marry just months before the 2012 presidential election, over 3 years before marriage equality was a reality across the nation. The Obama/Biden Administration developed the nation’s first comprehensive national HIV/AIDS strategy. They repealed “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.” They ended the legal defense of the “Defense of Marriage Act.” The list of accomplishments aimed at progressing the rights and acceptance of our community are too long to list in this format, it was nothing short of historic.
On November 3rd, LGBTQ Americans have a stark choice between love and hate. That is not hyperbole but reality. A vote for Donald Trump and Mike Pence is a vote to send queer Americans back into the closet; and a vote for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris is a vote for the future of our community and our nation. Joe is the uncle who defended you at every step of your coming out process, and Trump is the one who cut you out of the will. If you respect yourself and your community, your only choice is the saving grace that comes with a vote for Joe Biden.
