My 15-point response when asked how Trump has made things worse for LGBT people.
- Immediately upon taking office, Trump cleansed the White House website of all LGBT mention. There has been no participation or celebration of Pride Month since.
- Hate crimes spiked with the Trump’s election, reaching a 5-year high.
- Virtually all Trump’s Cabinet appointees have extensive records opposing LGBT rights which they are pursing in their new offices. A few examples: Education Secretary DeVos rescinded protection of transgender students in school. Under Secretary Carson, HUD withdrew a requirement for emergency shelters receiving HUD funding to post information about LGBT people’s rights to access the shelter safely and in accordance with their gender identity. HUD also withdrew critical data collection and evaluation guidelines for a homelessness prevention initiative targeting LGBT youth.
- Trump’s Vice President, Mike Pence, has been aggressively anti-LGBT throughout his political career, including Indiana’s infamous “Religious Freedom Restoration Act” (RFRA) while he was Governor.
- Trump supports the “First Amendment Defense Act” (FADA), which seeks to permit discrimination by individuals, many businesses, and non-profit organizations against same-sex couples, single parents and unmarried couples. The bill, cosponsored by 21 Senate Republicans, would bar the Federal government from opposing discrimination when an person or entity evokes a sincerely-held religious belief or moral conviction.
- Trump’s OMB Director Mulvaney has said that U.S. reaction to anti-gay persecution abroad is a violation of religious liberty. There’s considerable doubt currently whether LGBT people seeking asylum in the U.S. to escape death and torture will be allowed in.
- The Administration refused to sign a statement in support of an Inter-American Court of Human Rights’ ruling on marriage equality and transgender rights.
- The Administration argued before a Federal Appeals Court in New York that LGBT people should not be protected under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Trump lost this one thankfully, but it signals loud and clear where he stands and what policies he intends to pursue.
- Trump signed an executive order giving Attorney General Sessions discretion to create a license-to-discriminate in agencies across the federal government against LGBT Americans and women. DOJ has prepared a roadmap excluding LGBT people from protections under Fair Housing Act, Title IX, or Title VII.
- Education Secretary Betsy DeVos rescinded critical 2011 Title IX guidance related to schools’ obligations to address sexual harassment, including sexual violence. For the LGBT community, which faces disproportionate levels of sexual assault and violence, this decision sends a strong signal that the Department of Education will not protect them from harm.
- The Administration has removed all questions concerning the LGBT community from the 2020 Census, an effort to make us invisible and marginalized. Health & Human Services has also eliminated LGBT questions in its surveys designed to ascertain the needs of seniors, deliberately turning its back on LGBT seniors.
- Trump ordered a ban against transgender soldiers from the military. It’s been stayed for now by Court order, but transgender people can’t sign up. Existing soldiers could face discharge.
- In December 2017 Trump issued a proclamation for World AIDS Day, failing to mention high-risk communities, including the LGBT people and people of color. Reminds me of the time he failed to mention Jews on Holocaust Remembrance Day.
- Trump spoke at the Values Voter Summit hosted by the Family Research Council (FRC). The stage featured many of the leading opponents of LGBT rights.
- Trump’s Supreme Court nominees are no friends of the LGBT community, threatening damage to last generations.
