President-elect Donald Trump has called himself a “supporter” of LGBT rights, but his senior staff picks include some of the most virulently anti-gay politicians in the country, leaving LGBT groups uncertain and worried about what path he will eventually take.
Topping the anti-gay list is Vice President-elect Mike Pence, who Chad Griffin, the president of the Human Rights Campaign, called “the number one face of hate in the country.”
Early in his career, Pence advocated siphoning off government money for HIV treatment and instead putting it toward gay “conversion therapy.” He has urged Congress to “oppose any effort to put gay and lesbian relationships on an equal legal status,” and as recently as last year, Pence signed a license-to-discriminate bill that allowed business to refuse service to LGBT people.
Trump’s pick for attorney general – Sen. Jeff Sessions – has a voting record rated “zero percent” by the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBT civil rights group. Sessions voted for a failed constitutional ban on same-sex marriage and against the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the policy that did not allow gay people to serve openly in the military. He also opposed expanding the definition of a hate crime to include LGBT people.
“It is deeply disturbing that Jeff Sessions, who has such clear animus against so many Americans — including the LGBTQ community, women and people of color — could be charged with running the very system of justice designed to protect them,” Griffin said in a November statement.
Trump also named Betsy DeVos — a billionaire Republican donor and anti-gay activist — as education secretary. DeVos’s family, which includes Blackwater founder Eric Prince, has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to anti-gay groups, including groups that advocate for “conversion therapy.”
Trump’s top White House adviser Steve Bannon is the former chairman of Breitbart News Network, which has published headlines like “Gay Rights Have Made Us Dumber, It’s Time to Get Back in the Closet,” and “Day Of Silence: How The LGBT Agenda Is Hijacking America’s Youth.”
The Trump transition’s policy team also includes Ken Klukowski, a Breitbart editor and right-wing lawyer who Politico reported is the transition’s point person for “protecting constitutional rights.” Klukowski has worked for several anti-gay groups, including the Family Research Council and American Civil Rights Union, and served on the faculty of Liberty University — widely considered a haven for anti-gay evangelicals.
Klukowski has written articles for Breitbart News about the “homosexual agenda” and the “transgender agenda,” and coauthored an amicus brief to the Supreme Court urging the court not to expand Title IX protections to include gender identity. His columns have warned of “disaster” if the Republican Party changes course on gay marriage.
Although Trump couldn’t single-handedly overturn the Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage, there are many other ways he could harm LGBT rights. Trump’s Justice Department could undermine hate crime protections for LGBT people and withdraw Obama’s directive to schools not to discriminate against transgender students. Trump could also rescind Obama’s executive order prohibiting federal contractors from discriminating against LGBT employees, or support legislation that allows employment discrimination.
Not all of the voices in Trump’s inner circle oppose LGBT rights. Rudy Giuliani — considered a possible pick cabinet pick — came out in support of gay marriage in 2015, and officiated a gay wedding the following year. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Trump’s original transition chair, was the second governor to sign a ban on gay “conversion therapy,” acknowledging that sexuality is not a choice.
Some conservative LGBT advocates have defended Trump by arguing that he has no personal anti-gay animus. Joseph Murray, the administrator for the group LGBTrump, wrote a column arguing that Trump “does not fit the LGBT left narrative,” because he has involved several gay people in his transition team.
For example, Trump named Silicon Valley CEO Peter Thiel, who is gay, to the executive committee of his transition team. Trump also reportedly considered appointing Richard Grenell, a former spokesperson for the Bush administration at the UN, as UN ambassador, but picked South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley instead.
News of a possible cabinet-level position for Grenell, who is gay, was enough to set off some anti-gay pundits. Bryan Fischer, a former spokesman for the American Family Association and current host on the American Family Radio Network, reacted to a possible Grennell appointment by tweeting that conservatives would have to fight Trump’s “homosexual agenda.”
Heads up to conservatives: we'll have to fight Trump as hard on the homosexual agenda as we would have had to fight Hillary.
— Bryan Fischer (@BryanJFischer) November 14, 2016
Gregory Angelo, president of Log Cabin Republicans — a leading group of conservatives fighting for LGBT inclusion in the Republican party — expressed concerns about some of the anti-LGBT voices entering the administration, but argued that Trump is attempting to unify warring Republican factions.
“There is a reason that Log Cabin Republicans withheld endorsement from Mr. Trump. That is because there are many unknowns surrounding his presidency,” said Angelo. “What I can say with certainty is that marriage equality in the United States is here, and here to stay.”
He continued: “When you look big picture, what you see is someone who is surrounding themself with, in many cases, just as many pro-gay individuals as there are people who are not historical allies of the LGBT community. What that seems indicative of is Mr. Trump trying to unify what have been historically polarized and historically oppositional forces not just within the GOP, but within American culture.”
But other groups aren’t buying it, and argue that Trump has set back LGBT rights by placing anti-gay politicians in positions of extreme power. “The people President-elect Trump picks to serve in his administration will have a huge impact on the policies he pursues,” said JoDee Winterhof, senior vice president for policy and political affairs at the Human Rights Campaign. “We should all be alarmed at who he’s appointing to key posts on his transition team.”
Following Trump’s rise during the Republican primary, his party’s position on gay marriage appeared to become a bit less extreme. The GOP platform no longer calls for a constitutional amendment defining marriage as heterosexual, unlike in 2012 — although it attacks the Supreme Court’s decision and gives a quiet nod to so-called “conversion therapy.”
Many members of the LGBT community were alarmed by Trump’s election, with gay and transgender rights organization receiving a massive number of calls from people concerned about facing increased discrimination or the prospect of marriage equality being overturned.
Trump told Leslie Stahl on CBS’s 60 Minutes shortly after the election that he would not try to overturn the 2015 Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage. “It was already settled, he said. “It’s law. It was settled in the Supreme Court. I mean, it’s done.”
But in January, he had told Chris Wallace of Fox News that he would “strongly consider” appointing Supreme Court justices who would overturn the decision.
Trump’s position on transgender rights is also ambiguous. He criticized bills that restrict the rights of transgender people in April, saying that they should be able to “use the bathroom that they feel is appropriate,” before reversing himself in July and saying he’s “going with the state.”
well , its just another proof that people in the USA are certifiable insane
Re: “Trump May Not Be Anti-Gay, But Much of His Senior Staff Is”
Yes, starting with his VP – the most anti-equality Governor in the Country.
Why are gay people more concerned about their genitals than the swamp known as DC?
That is pure and utter nonsense.
Gay people are concerned with their liberties and rights – which, when Pence assumes the throne, will be tossed out the window in a heartbeat.
As for the “swamp”, the Trumpster ‘promised’ to drain it, and yet he’s now filling it with bigger (and richer, and much more prejudiced) alligators.
What’s the #1 difference between a free man and a slave?
ANSWER: The right to keep and bear arms.
Decided by the US Supreme Court in 1857. The case: Dred Scott vs Sandford.
Another case: The Amistad…
No one lives in 1857 anymore … except America’s frabid freligious frightwing, that is.
>>> As for the “swamp”, the Trumpster ‘promised’ to drain it, and yet he’s now filling it with bigger (and richer, and much more prejudiced) alligators. <<<
I feel sorry for Trump.
Why?
His task is to fill approximately 4000 vacancies… and the only thing he has to choose from are the alligators and salamanders from The Swamp.
Reaction formation is a fascinating psychological strategy because it flies in the face of logic. It is the expression of feelings towards an event, a situation or something about ourselves that is the opposite of what we truly feel. It is the person who condemns the drama on a reality TV shows when they secretly revel in it, it is the person who thinks drug addicts should face the harshest punishment when they are addicted themselves, it is the person vehemently defending heterosexual values because they are afraid of their own homosexuality. While it is hard to know for certain if one is defending a position sincerely or because of anxiety from expressing the opposite view, there is one characteristic of reaction formation that often gives it away: the excessive need to prove one’s point and the inflexibility of the position.
Based on psychology anybody that is so vehemently anti-gay has to be a closeted homosexual. There are just too many important issues out there for a heterosexual male to be pre-occupied by whether or not gay people can marry etc etc. Look at the way Pence looks at Trump? Bannon hires Milo, a male prostitute?? Its so obvious, these guys — Pence, Bannon, (how about McConnell??) are just full of anger and self loathing because they are living their lives on other peoples terms and expect others to do the same. Really there shoud be more mainstream coverage of this, really digging into the reason that old white men have time, energy or desire to punish the gay community? Its really kind of bizarre.
Why put quotes around “homosexual agenda”?
It’s the exactly right name for your crappy (and Trump’s) agenda.
At least, Trump has some decent conservatives on-board… let’s hope they can counter the harm that this garbage of homosexual agenda is doing to society.
How has treating gay citizens equally under the law (as the Constitution promises to ALL citizens) even affected you, let alone ‘harmed’ you – or anyone?
Because that is all the ‘agenda’ is – the equal protections of the law.
Why do you hate the Constitution so much?
Why be that oblique? If you have hired or appointed such extreme anti-gay individuals and you had many other choices, then you rightfully deserve to be called anti-gay. This man and his cabinet are a disgrace to the Presidency. Racist, misogynist, hostile to LGBTQ matters, civil rights, voting rights, freedom of the press, other constitutional guarantees, rule of law, anti-diversity, anti-immigrant, anti-truth, and so on. I think the headlines do not describe the immediacy of an article.
You know what was a disgrace to the presidency? Inviting mouth-foaming, radical homosexual activist into our White House who disrespectfully “shot the bird” to a portrait of Ronald Reagan. That was the height of barbarity.
I did NOT approve this news story about me. Your arrest is forthcoming, Alex!
Trump is going to be surrounded by dinosaurs and gorillas.
that actually surprises me.
i figured he would fire the rest home candidates and hire young people.
What is the federal budget for diapers?
Re: “Trump is going to be surrounded by dinosaurs and gorillas.”
Wrong tense. He already is.
Fags have gotten way to much attention from the immoral Jewish media. Nobody cares about fags but Jews and fags.
It looks to me that you also cares a lot about Jews and fags. Any bad memories?
Clean up in aisle 88!
The 2-for-1 sale on hate is oozing again!
Seems like the Trumpster has already ‘succeeded’ – in making America hate again.
So sad.
You can be sure that Trump’s handlers will do everything they can to make sure he doesn’t see articles like this. The cabal he is surrounding himself with will be making life for LGBT Americans horrible before he’s even aware of it.
Re: ” The cabal he is surrounding himself with will be making life for LGBT Americans horrible before he’s even aware of it.”
Trumplethinskin already started it when he chose Parson Pence as his VP – the most anti-equality governor in the country.
Clearly, Trump wishes to nominally allow freedom to gays, while making practical conditions so inhospitable to them that they will re-enter the closet they came out of—gender self-deportation, of a sort.
At least now the US will allow as much “religious freedom” to be a puritanical “Christian” and harass the “other” as one would like. I’m sure “those Second Amendment folks” will be happy.
Wow, getting brigaded hard these days are we???? Could it be you’ve lost control of the narrative?
Your days are numbered globalist scum.
You wont publish real comments, I constantly get shadow banned and you mistakenly think you can get away with it. Those days are numbered, we screenshot EVERYTHING. Keep censoring the truth on your website and we will build an enormous database of provable censorship against you. I SS every second, and I will gladly keep it up. No low energy jebs here.
I dare you…..keep up the censorship. We screen shot EVERYTHING and archive is our friend, not yours. Your days are numbered .
There is no right to free speech in a private space. Take a deep breath, snowflake.
If you are LGBT, you should not have concerns about a Trump presidency. Donald Trump doesnt give a royal flying flag about your orientation. He loves life, living and prosperity and would wish that all people would enjoy their lives and would wish to extend the opportunity of prosperity to all Americans.
I am sure of it.
Double-plus good!!
Double-plus good! Even the water tastes better under the new Leader!
“Donald Trump doesnt give a royal flying flag about your orientation.”
No doubt. Just his cabinet, the Senate, and in all likelihood, his Supreme Court pick.
No, I’m not worried simply because we live in a democracy, and while you can wind back progressive policies, you can’t wind back our increasingly gay-tolerant public opinion.
@Hugh Culliton
his picks from the cracker box are puzzling, even somewhat disturbing. But gladly – as you say – cant roll back public opinion. And if Trump wants to pick a huge fight and ruin everything, 2020!
Re: “I am sure of it.”
Sorry, but his selection of Mike Pence, the most virulently anti-gay governor in the country, who wants tax dollars spent trying to ‘convert’/’cure’/’heal’ gay people, as his Bp. And, with his selection of dinosaur Jeff Sessions as his A.G.
Your ‘surety’ is utterly without foundation.
Personally I am disappointed that neither the president elect nor any of the staff or cabinet member I have observed so far have dyed purple hair; and I do not know what to do about that though I would I suppose accept sympathy from the readers. And I would accept green dyed hair though that would be second best. But . . . Please do not try pushing blue dyed hair on me. Thanks
Please do not try pushing blue dyed hair on me.
No need. Most people get to that point on their own if they live long enough.
What an inept, inapt ‘analogy’.
No one is “pushing” … anyone to be gay or to have a same-sex marriage.
You are still perfectly free to ‘dye’ or not ‘dye your hair’.
And if his senior staff weren’t then maybe some of their friends or relatives would be and save the day. It is important that someone be anti-gay, and if not the president which is a shame, then his staff must be or you will have to stamp your feet and cry out. Or did I miss read your article? Most of the articles at the Intercept strike me as articles written in despair that the world is as it is which is not how it is supposed to be. The world doesn’t give a damn though what any of us think. It could care less unless you are handing out money or sex and a good meal.
Re: “It is important that someone be anti-gay”
What a nonsensical notion. It’s like saying ‘It is important that someone be anti-left-handedness’.
William F. Buckley — ‘Liberals claim to want to give a hearing to other views, but then are shocked and offended to discover that there are other views.’
More like: That’s how Buckley interpreted getting schooled about how wrong his views are, like that time he debated Chomsky and got his ass kicked: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaR-T_hqRSM
It could be worse. Saudi Arabia donated $25 Million to the Clinton Foundation.
Here’s Hillary’s pals on LGBT rights. From Wikipedia
“LGBT rights are not recognized by the government of Saudi Arabia. The Saudi social mores and laws are heavily influenced by Arab tribal customs and ultra-conservative Wahhabi Islam. Homosexuality and transgenderism are widely seen as immoral and indecent activities, and the law punishes acts of homosexuality or cross-dressing with death[citation needed], imprisonment, fines, corporal punishment, or whipping/flogging.”
Election’s over, Dana. Instead of comparing who’s better or worse, we need to have an honest appraisal of who the people just elected as president. And given the facts stated in the article, I’m not very confident about the future of the LGBT community in America, unless people stand and fight.
Did Mr. Fang ever complain about 0Bama’s racist cabinet appointments or the 0Bama administrations virulently anti-christian bias?
Please do give some examples of this “virulently anti-christian bias”, chump.
“anti-christian bias”???
BWAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAAA.
I forgot, I want to be on the other end of the Prince family gay-conversation therapy wagon. Sounds like a great scam.
Oops – we banned it in California. Gotta love Congressman Ted Lieu.
Personally, I find gay-conversation therapy refreshing, humorous and filled with great advice that this straight woman from the midwest values and has taken to heart over the years.
Mr Emmons,
Mr Trump himself – with fist raised – stressed the Q part – several times in whatever high-volume speech that was.
This whole thing has become very heavy. It’s only 11/28.
Now let’s review what “Diversity” and “Tolerance” mean! Give Trumps some slack, people.
We’ll give him some slack when he stops appointing blatant racists and viciously anti-equality bigots to important positions.
And not a moment sooner.
While the media focuses on Donald Trump, they seem to be forgetting about his Vice President. Here is a look at how Mike Pence voted on key issues while he was in Congress:
http://viableopposition.blogspot.ca/2016/07/mike-pences-past_15.html
His past views and Congressional voting record on many key issues put him further into the far right side of the political spectrum than Donald Trump.
While the media focuses on Donald Trump, they seem to be forgetting about his Vice President.
Don’t know about other media, but Alex’s story dealt with that in the second paragraph,
And the link attached to Pence’s name is to another story on Pence by Jeremy Scahill here at TI.
He is, as you and they note, a nasty character.
A “nasty character”… possibly synonymous with deplorable? Which then begs a simple question…how many Pence, De Voss, and Giuliani does it take to fill a basket?
I’d be willing to give each one of them their own basket. After all, they’re full-grown men.
I’m not into generalizations. I am addressing the known actions of a given man. If you want to generalize you’ll have to do it without the safety net of me behind – or in front of – you.