Is Donald Trump, Really the LGBTQ’s New BFF?
During his acceptance speech at the recent Republican National Convention, Donald Trump surprised supporters and detractors alike as he pledged, “As your President, I will do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens from the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology. Believe me!” So, my dear friends, why would anyone doubt the sincerity and support of this man who wants to Make America Great Again?
These comments followed in the footsteps of remarks offered by Peter Thiel. This co-founder of PayPal said in his speech, “Every American has a unique identity. I am proud to be gay. I am proud to be a Republican. But most of all I am proud to be an American. I don’t pretend to agree with every plank in our party’s platform.” And thus, Thiel highlighted, yet at the same time abandoned, the analysis of that very same platform. It is this ideology which Trump will have to either outright ignore or follow in blind obedience.
Several components of the Republican platform are ubiquitously anti-LGBTQ. They include: (1) overturning the June, 2015, Supreme Court decision that made same-sex marriage legal; (2) an endorsement of “conversion” therapy, that strategy that has destroyed countless lives and has led to numerous suicides among our brothers and sisters; (3) prohibitions for adoption by gay couples; (4) an emphasis on states’ rights in determining the use of public restrooms by those who identify as transgender; (5) a directive to remove protection of the discrimination classes of sexual orientation and gender identity. This platform has been labeled by many as the “most anti-LGBT platform in Republican history.”
Quite expectedly, there have been many reactions to this pledge within and outside of the LGBTQ community. It is astounding that right-wing evangelicals continue to heap praise on Trump, even for his seemingly pro-LGBTQ comments. The American Family Association makes this declaration on its homepage: “Right-thinking Republicans have always opposed the normalization of homosexuality for the same reason we opposed slavery: because of the harm it does to those who are trapped in it and to a culture which allows it. We oppose the embrace of homosexuality not because we hate homosexuals but because we love them. We know the health risks involved in this behavior, from incurable sexually transmitted diseases to the crippling mental, emotional, psychological, and spiritual harms associated with it. We love people too much to see them immersed in such a self-destructive lifestyle without a word of warning.” To this I say, “Please love us a little less!”
Tony Perkins, President of the Family Research Council, believes that Donald Trump would serve the LGBTQ community better than Hillary Clinton. “What he is saying,” Perkins stated, “is no American, regardless of political ideology or your life choices, should be living under threat of terrorist attack in the streets of the United States of America. So yes, LGBT, Catholic, Protestant, I don’t care, atheist…no American should live in fear and that’s exactly what Donald Trump is saying.” At a recent rally in Atlanta, Perkins said, “Ask the gays what they think and what they do in, not only Saudi Arabia, but many of these countries, and then you tell me—who’s your friend, Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton?”
I take issue with their uncompromising accolades thrown blindly toward the Republican nominee, Donald Trump. Incredibly, this man has gotten this far in the Presidential campaign, including winning his party’s nomination as their candidate, by bullying his primary opponents, avoiding the release of his tax returns, and lacing his extemporaneous speeches with narcissistic references of grandeur. So, is Donald Trump a better friend of the LGBTQ community than is Hillary Clinton?
J. Bryan Lowder wrote for Slate, “the idea that a Republican president is going to protect LGBTQ people from ‘oppression’ is, in a word, laughable. In fact, while homophobia in certain parts of Muslim culture is a real problem, queer Americans don’t need to look to a ‘hateful foreign ideology’ to find something to fear. We have more than enough homophobia and transphobia to deal with right here at home—much of it emanating from the white, straight, nominally Christian people who make up Trump’s base.”
The fact of the matter is that Donald Trump will say whatever is expedient at the moment. He never seems to remember from one day to the next what he stated—on the record—in previous interviews. It is mystifying why the media is not holding his feet to the fire with his continuous and blatant inconsistencies. Other than the middle-class white male, there does not seem to be one single demographic that he has not offended or insulted in some fashion. And yet, this “energizer bunny” keeps on running.
We cannot afford to overlook Trump’s statements in which he has clearly stated his opposition to same sex marriage. We must not sweep aside as a calculated strategy in the primary when he met with a lineup of right-wing evangelicals that comprises the Who’s Who of opponents to anything LGBTQ. Trump went so far as to name an Evangelical Advisory Board, comprised by such pedagogues as Michelle Bachmann, James Dobson, Jerry Falwell, Jr., Ralph Reed, and many others whose religious credentials expose them as ardent opponents to the LGBTQ community.
Is Donald Trump the LGBTQ community’s new BFF? I say wholeheartedly YES! But only when we define BFF as Biggest Friggin’ Fraud!