Yes, I'm aware the LGBTQ community is focused on more than just that marriage issue. But Trump's record on additional concerns within said community is also pretty solid.
Despite criticism from both sides, Trump largely stood by his “New York values” throughout the 2016 presidential campaign, paying just enough lip service to the evangelical Right to cement his working-class base while still emerging above the Republican field in condemning North Carolina’s practically unnecessary “bathroom bill.” His Department of Justice did not withdraw the Obama administration’s lawsuit against the state until the North Carolina legislature replaced it. Trump’s religious-liberty executive order was nominal at best. And between the platforming of Peter Thiel at the Republican National Convention, who famously announced, “I am proud to be gay, I am proud to be a Republican, but most of all, I am proud to be an American,” and the tapping of the openly gay Richard Grenell as the U.S. ambassador to NATO, the LGBTQ+ community has had more representation thanks to the Trump administration than any other American presidency, save for maybe that of Obama.
With all that said, I guess I'm rather confounded at the latest protest added by the grievance mongering crowd (via Vox.com).
President Donald Trump’s first few months have been marked by protest. There was the Women’s March. There was the Day Without a Woman strike. Then there were the March for Science and the People’s Climate March.
Now there’s the Equality March for Unity and Pride, a protest by and for LGBTQ people, on Sunday, June 11. And it could be big: Organizers expect 260,000 to 300,000 will attend.
The march will target a broad set of problems facing LGBTQ Americans, according to organizers:
The “Equality March for Unity & Pride” is a grassroots movement which will mobilize the diverse LGBTQ+ communities to peacefully and clearly address concerns about the current political landscapes and how it is contributing to the persecution and discrimination of LGBTQ+ individuals.
Although Trump and his administration’s rhetoric and actions are on organizers’ minds, the point of the march is broader — addressing nondiscrimination laws, hate crimes (including murders of transgender people), disparities in the criminal justice system, and the unique challenges of LGBTQ immigrants.
And even though it’s coming in the middle of LGBTQ Pride Month, the march is not meant to be a traditional Pride parade; it’s geared more toward protest than celebration.
Amazing. Pride Month has really evolved as a celebration over the years, specifically how the LGBTQ community views it as a festival for all segments of society (yes, even straight folks) who celebrate the freedom to live openly. Yet this "Equality March" likely did little except draw attention away from the tremendous progress which has been made over the past decade. That's not to say that the LGBTQ folks don't still face challenges. They most definitely do. One obstacle in particular is that any member of that community who in any way expresses an allegiance to right-of-center politics are pretty much ostracized by the grievance mongering crowd. Somehow I don't believe the "Equality March for Unity and Pride" had any chants on behalf of gays who don't toe the "progressive" ideological line. Kinda the antithesis of "unity," no?
As I scrolled through that Vox piece, I came across a couple of paragraphs which seemed to undermine the march's mission (emphasis mine).
So what exactly are the issues that LGBTQ people are fired up about, two years after the massive victory of marriage equality?
The issue at the front of many LGBTQ people’s minds is violence. The march, after all, is coming a day before the one-year anniversary of the deadliest mass shooting in US history: the Pulse shooting in Orlando, Florida, where a shooter targeted LGBTQ people at a nightclub, killing 49 and wounding dozens more.
So the motive of the "shooter" isn't relevant? The fact that the "shooter," whose name was Omar Mateen, pledged allegiance to ISIS prior to carrying out these atrocities shouldn't be considered? Y'all heard of ISIS, right? They're that little faction within the radical Islamist movement which happens to abhor homosexuals and thus commits unspeakable violent acts towards them. Yet I scan this entire article and find nary a mention of ISIS, Islam, jihad, etc. Seems to me that should be the biggest target of the march's ire.
Given the fact that President Trump has conveyed a unifying message towards the LGBTQ community in addition to his commitment to eradicating radical Islamic terror, I don't know that the "Equality March" could have found a more staunch ally for their cause.
Ironic, isn't it?
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