By D’Anne Witkowski
A day after it was announced that the Trump administration was planning on making it easier for federal contractors to discriminate against LGBTQ workers, the Log Cabin Republicans (LCR) did the only thing that made sense — they endorsed him wholeheartedly.
In a very out-of-touch opinion piece in the Washington Post, LCR Chair Robert Kabel and Vice Chair Jill Homan wrote, “Since taking office, President Trump has followed through on many of his commitments to the United States, including taking bold actions that benefit the LGBTQ community.”
What?
Trump’s administration is the most anti-LGBTQ, like, ever. He’s appointed a score of anti-LGBTQ judges, kicked transgender service members to the curb, endorses anti-LGBTQ candidates, and supports so-called “religious freedom” laws that are a pass for discriminating against LGBTQ employees and customers. That’s just a partial list. He is literally working to undo every gain LGBTQ people made under President Obama.
But please, LCR chairs, do enlighten me about his “bold actions that benefit the LGBTQ community.”
Trump has “committed to end the spread of HIV/AIDS in 10 years, through the use of proven science, medicine and technology,” they write.
First of all, the distrust of science by Republicans has only accelerated under President “Windmills Cause Cancer” Trump. Republicans also have vowed to do away with the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which includes protections for pre-existing conditions like HIV/AIDS, not to mention the fact that the ACA has allowed many people to access care who previously were unable to get insurance. Oh, and there’s the fact that many of Trump’s supporters in the religious right still believe that AIDS is God’s punishment and that gays are subhuman and sex-crazed and need to pray to Jesus to make them straight. So spare me the “Trump is going to end AIDS” bullshit.
Kabel and Homan also claimed that “Trump has used the United States’ outside global influence to persuade other nations to adopt modern human rights standards, including launching an initiative to end the criminalization of homosexuality.”
Ah yes, no doubt other countries are looking to the U.S. for pointers on how to elevate human rights standards. Maybe the globe will be inspired by how Trump has earned the adoration of literal Nazis and helped to embolden white supremacist terrorists. Or maybe they are jealous of our “guns are more important than human lives” policies. Surely the world is impressed that Trump is cracking down on asylum-seekers and immigrants by taking their children and locking them in baby jails with no plans for how to reunite these families.
Actually, Kabel and Homan likely see his treatment of immigrants as a plus.
“His hard line on foreign policy has protected LGBTQ lives,” they claim.
Trump’s foreign policy has protected LGBTQ lives? Was it when he tried to goad North Korea’s Kim Jong Un into war via Twitter? Or was it when he scrapped the Iran nuclear deal and seemed hip to go to war with them, too? Was it when he declared that Russia, a country that has extremely punitive anti-gay laws, was America’s BFF? The fact is, Trump’s policies have made Americans less safe at home and abroad. We are literally the laughingstock of the world because we have such a supremely stupid and vile president. Trump makes the nation weak.
Kabel and Homan also claim that Trump’s “tax cuts have benefited LGBTQ families and helped put food on their tables” and his “aggressive negotiations on trade deals have preserved LGBTQ jobs.”
Sure, Jan.
If you’re wondering why LCR would embrace such a destructive and hateful administration, Kabel and Homan make the argument that things aren’t as bad as they were, therefore they’re good as they are.
“For LGBTQ Republicans, watching the 2016 GOP convention before Donald Trump took the stage was like a dream fulfilled,” they stated. “The distance between that event and Pat Buchanan’s hate-filled exhortation against the LGBTQ community in Houston in 1992 is a powerful measurement of how far we’ve come.”
Ah. So because the GOP put gay billionaire Peter Thiel on stage at their convention instead of hate troll Pat Buchanan all is well and good? Regardless of who they put on stage, the Republican platform for 2016 was the most anti-LGBTQ platform ever. Even worse than in 1992. Just because the GOP realized that public homophobic hate is a bad look doesn’t mean they don’t still embrace it in private and enact policies that advance their anti-LGBTQ agenda.
Look, just because you’re in a relationship where your partner used to punch you in the face on the regular but now only slaps you sometimes doesn’t mean your relationship has gotten better. And yet here are the Log Cabin Republicans not only accepting their abuse but praising their abuser. And that hurts all of us who are in this relationship involuntarily and desperately want to break up.
—D’Anne Witkowski is a poet, writer and comedian living in Michigan with her wife and son. She has been writing about LGBT politics for over a decade. Follow her on Twitter @MamaDWitkowski.
–Graphic by www.CanStockPhoto.com.
