Trump Post Photo With Virulently Anti-Gay Pastor

Trump with anti-gay extremist Robert Jeffress

For any gays who might be falling for Donald Trump's bullshit line that he'd "keep the LGBT community safer," they'd be well advised to take a look at the company Trump is keeping and pay attention this week as Trump meets with the pantheon of anti-LGBT religious leaders and professional Christians this coming week.  Personally, I am a loss as to how someone who has stated that he wants to overturn the Supreme Court's ruling in Obergefell can be considered a friend or ally. The Advocate shares my views and has a piece on Trump's cavorting with anti-gay nutcase Robert Jeffress among others.  Here are some article excerpts:

If Donald Trump is a friend to “the gays,” he has a downright clueless way of showing it. 

The Republican presidential candidate, who has been making the case these days that he’s better for LGBT people than Hillary Clinton, retweeted a thumbs-up photo of him on Friday with his good pal, antigay pastor Robert Jeffress. The pastor said he was “honored to pray for my friend” at a Dallas rally together. In the past, he's also said 70 percent of gays have AIDS, that there's a direct link between homosexuality and pedophilia, and a lot more.

[The[ following [is an] accounting of some of the absolute worst moments from Jeffress’ repertoire. It bears repeating now:

- In 1998, Jeffress checked out all the books from a Wichita Falls library that were inclusive of gay parents and promised never to return them. His protest led to many more copies of Heather Has Two Mommies and Daddy's Roommate being donated to the library, and a waiting list formed just to check them out.

- Jeffress gave a two-part sermon in July 2007 called "Homosexuality Is a Perversion." In it, he complained that "homosexuality is being crammed down our throats" by activists who are using "brainwashing techniques." To help his congregation stay vigilant, he listed the supposed techniques in their Sunday program. 

- Jeffress got a lot of attention in 2008 for a “Why Gay Is Not OK” sermon during which he called homosexuality "a twisting of God's plan" and said there is no such thing as Christian LGBT people, who he said are "worshipping a God of their own imagination." 

- In August 2011, Jeffress gave a sermon titled "What to Say to Those Who Are Gay" and in it he misrepresented a Dutch study and told his followers that "the idea of long-term homosexual relationships is a myth."

- Jeffress introduced presidential candidate Rick Perry during the Values Voters Summit in October 2011 and during an interview said gays should be kept out of the military because "70 percent of the gay population" has AIDS, adding "it's a fact that it's a gay disease." 

- Also in July [2012], Jeffress compared being gay to bestiality while a guest on The Janet Mefferd Show. "The retort to that is 'oh! Are you pulling a Rick Santorum and saying that homosexuality is like bestiality, uh, incest, or pedophilia'? And I say 'Yes.'" he told the radio host, according to audio from RightWingWatch. "It is just as immoral as those practices. 

- In December, Jeffress warned his congregants that if the United States doesn't stop same-sex marriage and "turn away and say no to what God has called an abomination" then the country is doomed. 

With friends like Trump and his buddy Jeffress, do we really need an enemy?