Trump Waves A Rainbow Flag; GOP Remains Anti-Gay

Donald Trump unfurled an upside down rainbow flag with the words “LGBTs for TRUMP” scrawled across it in black marker at a rally in Greeley, Colorado on Sunday. As Trump entered the stage, he beckoned someone toward him who then handed him the balled up flag. He paraded the flag up and down the stage in front of the crowd before handing it to someone else. He didn’t mention anything LGBT-related in the speech following this little stunt.

trumpgayflag

Trump’s small contingent of LGBT supporters said that the mainstream media wasn’t covering his action or that he made history. Chris Barron, co-founder of GOProud and founder of LGBT for Trump, tweeted the next morning: “Trump made history last night. MSM wants to pretend it didn’t happen. He’s the most pro-LGBT Pres candidate ever nominated by either party.” If you’ve even been alive the past year, you would know that that’s far from the truth. Trump does not have an official policy document that lists his supposedly pro-LGBT stance but has consistently laid out an anti-LGBT position through announcements and promises made to his party and anti-LGBT groups.

The most significant anti-LGBT stance Trump has taken is his promise to Catholics to sign the First Amendment Defense Act, which is similar to other religious liberty bills that would allow anti-LGBT discrimination disguised as freedom of religion. He issued a statement saying he would sign the bill, which bans the government from taking “action against a person, wholly or partially on the basis that such person believes or acts in accordance with a religious belief or moral conviction that marriage is or should be recognized as the union of one man and one woman, or that sexual relations are properly reserved to such a marriage.” If passed by Congress and signed by the President, the law would legalize discrimination against LGBT people in all sectors, from private businesses to public education.

Trump has also said he would appoint Supreme Court justices who would overturn the Obergefell decision which brought marriage equality last year. In one of the most recent presidential debates, Trump said he would pick justices that model after the late judge Antonin Scalia, who opposed marriage equality and generally all things progressive. Trump’s 11 top picks for the open seat were all white, mostly men and really anti-gay.

Not to mention Trump’s running mate is Indiana Governor Mike Pence, who signed his state’s antigay “religious freedom” law. He’s also voted against the Employment Non-Discrimination Act in 2007 and opposed Obama’s directive on allowing transgender students to use the bathroom that matches their gender, among other anti-LGBT stances he’s taken over the years. 

In addition to Pence, Trump’s got a whole arsenal of Republican politicians who’ve been proposing and passing anti-LGBT laws since day one. Just check out what they’ve been doing lately in Congress. Republicans have been trying to undo Obama’s anti-discrimination executive order to protect LGBT federal contractors by prosing measures like The Russell Amendment. The Rewire reports:

The discriminatory Russell Amendment would allow federal contractors claiming a religious affiliation to target some 28 million workers on the basis of gender identity, sexual orientation, religious affiliation, and reproductive health-care decisions.

But Rep. Steve Russell (R-OK) crafted broad language that covers recipients of not only every federal contract but also subcontracts, grants, cooperative agreements, and purchase orders—resulting in an amendment that could apply to many more workers than the initial 28 million estimate. Progressive groups contend that the Russell Amendment would allow religiously affiliated hospitals and universities, for instance, to wield the same discrimination over thousands of additional employees.

With less than a week till election day, Trump’s empty rainbow flag gesture was a meek way to pander to LGBT right-wingers, I guess. I mean, not even the Log Cabin Republicans endorsed him. His policies, along with the rest of the GOP, are proof that he really doesn’t give a shit about LGBT people.

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Yvonne

Yvonne S. Marquez is a lesbian journalist and former Autostraddle senior editor living in Dallas, TX. She writes about social justice, politics, activism and other things dear to her queer Latina heart. Yvonne was born and raised in the Rio Grande Valley. Follow her on Instagram or Twitter. Read more of her work at yvonnesmarquez.com.

Yvonne has written 205 articles for us.

32 Comments

  1. Yeah…I have been telling people that even though trump has no experience in politics (the I fear what Hillary does, not what trump says group) that Pence does have political experience and none of it good…

  2. I’m pissed that someone desecrated the Rainbow flag by scrawling very badly written words on it in marker pen. Totally disrespecting our flag. How wud his fans like it if someone scribbled badly drawn words hurredly all over the u.s. flag? And it looks like it needs an iron too smh.

    • And another thing,, if it was truly an lgbt+ person who wrote that (which it clearly wasn’t) then it would be at least lgbt+ or lgbt*qia+. Fake as fuck. Bastards.

      • Maybe it’s a cultural thing, but where I live (Sweden) nobody bats an eye or sees it as desecration if someone scribbles a message on a flag. I see it all the time in sporting events for instance.

        • We Americans typically go BATSHIT if anyone so much as sneezes on a flag. Someone writing on the US flag as on the Pride flag above would have GOP-types up in arms before you could blink

          • That’s interesting to know. When Swedes travel to Germany, Poland, France, Belgium, Holland and so on to watch football we usually bring a Swedish flag and scribble our hometown on the flag. We don’t consider it desecration to write on the flag.

    • I can’t get over it either.

      It’s like showing up to meeting or something without your pants or having briefed your self on the material
      It’s almost like…NOT CARING AT ALL.

      • Or trolling. “Holy shit, I can say and do literally anything and some people will still vote for me. How about I try scribbling on this upside-down gay flag and see if I can reel in some more suckers.”

    • Because we’re a nation built on the annihilation of others and either be like one of the annihilators or be annihilated.
      Either literally physically annihilated or figuratively emotionally annihilated until the we physically annihilate ourselves.

      Attempting to assimilate is a survival tactic. For gay white men (others too) it’s trying to recover their failure to be what they’re suppose to be rather than embrace what they are and join with the rest of us in turning the beat around.
      They have more to lose being so close to the hegemonic patriarchal ideal.

      For a special ed loser like me used to being an outsider embracing queer as fuck you not gay as in happy is easier because my life is already a fuck you.

      Embracing ones’ supposedly broken bits is just hard for some people.
      For some of us it’s like become like breathing and we kinda forget or never knew what it was to extricate ourselves from the incubator of awful.

  3. Does it say LGBTs or does it say LGBT to the fifth power? Are we sure he didn’t think he was showing off someone’s math homework award?

    • yesssss that s is added in the most awkward way— like you can tell they were really unsure about whether it was LGBT or LGBTs

    • It’s because we’re growing so powerful – we’re at the 5th level. That’s why he looks so nervous. Just wait till it’s LGBT10…

        • Quite

          Agenda

          9.00 – wake up
          9.10 – breakfast
          9.30 – walk dog
          10.00 – start ritual
          1.00 – ascend to LGBT10
          2.00 – start mass recruitment to gay lifestyle
          4.30 – pick up milk on the way home.

          • Please don’t forget the milk. Even if we’re at the 10th power, I ain’t drinking this tea plain.

    • maybe because he’s so much into exaggeration, it’s like exponential LGBT supporters. so many LGBT, the biggest.

  4. The image genuinely made me feel sick but the comment are cracking me up. Thank you, commenters! <3

  5. Chris Barron is rude, transphobic, and generally awful. GOProud’s philosophy is that conservative policies are good for Americans, and gay people are Americans so they’re good for gays too.

  6. ‘the most pro-LGBT candidate ever’? Do the meaning of words even matter? ARE FACTS JUST SOMETHING WE AREN’T CARING ABOUT ANYMORE?

  7. I’m still in constant awe that it’s come down to the week before the national election and trump is what the Republican party churned up. I’ve never been so disgusted or afraid in my life and so many others in the US feel the same :\

  8. The one time the city I live is on Autostraddle and I feel like I have to apologize:(

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