07 March 2017

Mixed Signals

The Toronto Star published an interesting article yesterday with the title "An ‘entirely confusing story’ from Donald Trump on gay rights" (link here).

The piece provides a good overview of how Donald Trump and his administration send mixed signals about LGBT rights. While Trump appeared to be LGBT-friendly as a businessperson before he became a candidate, his presidential administration is sending an entirely different message.

The piece quotes a gay Florida man, who twice met Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort before he entered the presidential race, about how he sees the man now: "I don’t think he is making policy. I think he’s surrounded himself with some horrible people when it comes to LGBT issues, they’re the ones that are making policy... It’s not like there’s anybody in the official administration who’s an advocate of treating LGBT people the way we treat every other American. I can’t think of a single one. And that’s frightening."

That's a very succinct quote. Don't be distracted by the way Trump treated LGBT in the past or the platitudes he tosses out without much thought; he is not a circumspect man. Focus instead on what he and his administration are doing now that he's President and watch the people in his inner circle -- they are decidedly and harshly and consistently anti-LGBT.

"What his personal opinion is, I haven’t spent one second thinking about that at all," said an LGBT advocate from Ohio quoted in the article. "It’s his actions. It’s the people he’s surrounding himself with."

Unfortunately, the piece ultimately falls short through a glaring omission: it makes utterly no mention of the fraudulently titled "First Amendment Defense Act" (FADA), which would legalize discrimination against LGBT people on "religious grounds," a gigantic step backwards for civil rights.

This proposed law, which Trump has promised to sign the moment it reaches the Oval Office, would ensure that LGBT Americans and many others are subject to "separate but not equal" treatment.

Trump's support for FADA answers the question as to whether he's pro- or anti-LGBT: anyone who signs FADA is no friend of the LGBT community.

It would make Trump more hostile to LGBT Americans than Ronald Reagan and both Presidents Bush.

1 comment:

  1. After viewing the superb serie «When We Rise» on ABC, must admit that the battles for LGBT rights are like «Never Ending Story» in USA.

    As long and those rights and the rights of ALL Americans would be untouchable in a USA Chart of Liberty and Human Rights, it'll be subject to anyone in office and religious lobby to jeopardise it.

    Those battles since Stonewall showed how much difficult it is in USA to go against bigotry and narrow minded people brain washed by religious beliefs.
    As I always put forward, as long as religion is part of your politics and is interfering with the making of your laws, you're going to be step around all the time. Worst your claims of equality will be like a «cha-cha» dance.

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