One of the most bizarre examples of support for Trump has perhaps been The Log Cabin Republicans. OK yes, in one sense it is perhaps understandable – they are Republicans and he is the officially endorsed Republican candidate, so it might perhaps be expected that they would get behind him and support him.
For the record, it was indeed all official, on Oct 22nd they issued this statement …
Mr. Trump is perhaps the most pro-LGBT presidential nominee in the history of the Republican Party. His unprecedented overtures to the “LGBTQ community”—a first for any major-party candidate in our nation’s history—are worthy of praise, and should serve as a clarion call to the GOP that the days of needing to toe an anti-LGBT line are now a thing of the past.
… and yet clearly they gyrate and struggle and so clutch at straws …
Log Cabin Republicans have long emphasized that we are not a single-issue organization, nor are our members single-issue voters. Even if we were, rhetoric alone regarding LGBT issues does not equate to doctrine. As Mr. Trump spoke positively about the LGBT community in the United States, he concurrently surrounded himself with senior advisors with a record of opposing LGBT equality, and committed himself to supporting legislation such as the so-called “First Amendment Defense Act” that Log Cabin Republicans opposes.
… then finally decided to hold their nose and go for it …
Should Mr. Trump become our nation’s next President, Log Cabin Republicans welcomes the opportunity to work with his administration to ensure the advances in LGBT freedom we have fought for and secured will continue.
Detachment from Reality
The degree of denial on display is quite frankly jaw-dropping.
Mr’s Trumps VP, Mike Pence is a ferocious homophobic bigot. To illustrate that, let’s take a quick peek at a few gems from Mr Pence’s Wikipedia page …
In 2000, Pence stated “Congress should oppose any effort to recognize homosexuals as a ‘discrete and insular minority‘ entitled to the protection of anti-discrimination laws similar to those extended to women and ethnic minorities.”[151]
He called for “an audit to ensure that federal dollars were no longer being given to organizations that celebrate and encourage the types of behaviors that facilitate the spreading of the HIV virus” and instead advocated for resources to be directed toward conversion therapy programs, “[for] those seeking to change their sexual behavior.”[152][153][154][155]
Pence has said that homosexuals should not serve in the military, saying, “Homosexuality is incompatible with military service because the presence of homosexuals in the ranks weakens unit cohesion.”[156]
In 2007, Pence voted against the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would have banned workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.[158]
… and this is the administration they will work with!!
The direction things are rolling in even a few days ago remains set, the Huff Po was explaining in no uncertain terms …
I’m not going to sugarcoat this at all. We are in for a full-blown assault on LGBTQ rights the likes of which many, particularly younger LGBTQ people, have not seen. Progress will most certainly be halted completely, likely rolled back. And it’s already underway.
… Mike Pence is perhaps one of the most anti-LGBTQ evangelical Christian political crusaders to serve in Congress and as governor of a state.
…Ben Carson, who compared homosexuality to pedophilia and incest, is a vice chairman of the transition team and so is Newt Gingrich, who has attacked what he called “gay fascism” and, in 2014, “the new fascism” around LGBTQ rights.
And right on cue, already appointed to lead domestic policy on the transition team is Ken Blackwell, formerly the Ohio secretary of state. Blackwell has comparedhomosexuality to arson and kleptomania, which he called “compulsions.”
None of this is a surprise and all of this was well-known and well-understood prior to the Log Cabin endorsement on 22nd Oct.
The Entire Platform for the Republicans in 2016 was the most anti-LGBT rights platform even seen in the entire history of the Republican party, and this was well-known to the Log Cabin Republicans. They themselves even put out a press release highlighting it …
Log Cabin Republicans on Tuesday evening issued an email announcing that “moments ago, the Republican Party passed the most anti-LGBT Platform in the Party’s 162-year history.”
The email, from Log Cabin President Gregory T. Angelo, continues: “Opposition to marriage equality, nonsense about bathrooms, an endorsement of the debunked psychological practice of “pray the gay away” — it’s all in there.
But …. despite being a single issue group that formed for just one specific issue alone, they officially endorsed Trump and then squared that circle by claiming that they, as a single issue group, are not a single issue group at all.
(Insert Facepalm here)
Well Guess what …
So Trump won and they have now issued a press release in which they are begging for money to enable them to work with the Trump administration to help defend the rights that Obama gave them and the Trump administration now wants to take away again…
your support is needed so much right now. Please give now and give generously — $250, $100, $50, or whatever you can give will make a difference when it matters most.
And if you’re not a member (or if your membership has lapsed) now is the time to “come back to the Cabin”! Join or renew your membership at this link right now.
Log Cabin Republicans will continue to work for full equality on behalf of all LGBT Americans. That’s my vow, and it’s why I’m writing to you tonight.
… and yet at the same time in that same press-release they point out …
While Log Cabin Republicans was working to have a relationship with our nation’s incoming chief executive, the LGBT Left was busy demonizing Donald Trump and fundraising off of bogeymen.
Sigh!
The reason so many have opposed Trump and the Republican platform is not because they are on the “left”, nor because they have been “fundraising off of bogeymen“, but rather because, regardless of their specific political leanings, they have not been stupid enough to seriously try and jump into bed with extremists who not only hate them, but have openly and very vocally declared their intent to remove all of their basic human rights.
As humans, we often we can and do align emotionally with those that we perceive to be our tribe. In this case however these are not Regan’s Republicans. Instead, this rather sadly is an almost literal example of turkeys voting for Christmas.