Trump Regime Moves to Scrap Protections for LGBT Healthcare Patients

Trump, Pence and HHS Secretary Azar.

With the Covid-19 pandemic raging one would think that the main focus of the Trump/Pence regime would be on insuring that all Americans have access to quality healthcare without any obstacles.  Sadly, that would be a false assumption.  As Politico is reporting the Trump/Pence regime is continuing on its quest to roll back Obama administration policies that protected LGBT individuals from discrimination and the refusal of medical services which in the LGBT context are part of Trump's efforts to impose the anti-LGBT license to discriminate laws  Trump's motivation for with such vile actions?  To maintain his support among evangelical Christians and Christofascists who cannot tolerate any regulations or policies that restrict their ability to mistreat those they deem "other" and who have a sick need to look down upon others in order to feel superior.  Here are highlights from Politico:

The Trump administration is moving to scrap an Obama-era policy that protected LGBTQ patients from discrimination, alarming health experts who warn that the regulatory rollback could harm vulnerable people during a pandemic.

The health department is close to finalizing its long-developing rewrite of Obamacare’s Section 1557 provision, which barred health care discrimination based on sex and gender identity. The administration’s final rule on Thursday was circulated at the Justice Department, a step toward publicly releasing the regulation in the coming days, said two people with knowledge of the pending rule. The White House on Friday morning also updated a regulatory dashboard to indicate that the rule was under review. Advocates fear that it would allow hospitals and health workers to more easily discriminate against patients based on their gender or sexual orientation.

The Obama administration moved to create its non-discrimination protections in response to advocates and health care experts who said that LGBTQ patients were being turned away from necessary care or intimidated from seeking it out. The broad rule also offered specific protections for transgender patients for the first time and extended protections for women who had abortions. But a federal judge in 2016 blocked those protections following a lawsuit from religious groups, and the Trump administration has steadily worked to weaken the rule before it could take full effect.

In last year's proposal, the health department also proposed changes that went further than simply rolling back the new Obama protections, moving to eliminate similar nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ patients that were contained in other regulations.

"If the final rule is anything like the proposed rule, HHS is adopting changes that would be harmful in the best of times but that are especially cruel in the midst of a global pandemic that is disproportionately affecting vulnerable communities and exacerbating disparities,” said Katie Keith, a lawyer and Georgetown professor who’s tracked the rule.

The health department's top civil rights official also defended the administration's approach to vulnerable populations. “As we have shown in our recent efforts to protect persons from disability and age discrimination during the pandemic, HHS will vigorously enforce civil rights laws as passed by Congress, before, during, and after any rulemaking,” Roger Severino, the HHS civil rights chief, said in a statement. Severino was an active critic of the Obama-era non-discrimination rules before joining the administration. Any rule issued by the Trump administration on LGBTQ protections could be short-lived. The Supreme Court is set to rule on whether the Civil Rights Act protects LGBTQ workers, which could create a new regulatory framework and force health officials to swiftly return to the drawing board.

Given the Trump/Pence regime's anit-LGBT agenda - and that of the GOP in general, I find it dumbfounding that a small percentage of gays continue to call themselves Republicans. It makes about as much sense as a 1930's German Jew joining the Nazi Party.

Trump's Pride Tweets Explained: Be Grateful We Don't Execute You

As an LGBT activist one of the most maddening phenomenon is LGBT individuals who vote for Republicans even as the GOP continues to block, or in the case of Der  Trumpenführer and Mike Pence who are steadily waging a war against LGBT rights and promoting anti-LGBT discrimination.  Now these individuals - who to me are like 1930's German Jews supporting the Nazi Party - are breathlessly pointing out that Trump acknowledged the existence of Pride month in a tweet.  Never mind all of the anti-LGBT efforts the Trump/Pence regime has in progress, including filing briefs with the U.S. Supreme Court arguing that anti-gay discrimination by employers is absolutely fine and legal.   A column in The Advocate looks at what Trump's acknowledgement of Pride month really means and what ought to frighten every sentient LGBT American.  Here are column highlights:

Unlike his recent predecessors or challenger in the 2016 election, President Trump has never issued a proclamation commemorating LGBTQ Pride. He has yet to do so, but today issued tweets that supposedly honor the contributions of LGBT people, even though he's undermined and reversed progress for equality throughout his presidency. 

Trump's State Department did announce in February it was working to decriminalize homosexuality around the world — Trump himself was completely unaware of the plan — though we've seen little progress since then. In fact, Trump said nothing when Brunei enacted a new law that could result in stoning people to death for engaging in gay sex (after an outcry, the Brunei government said it won't enforce the law, but will keep it on the books as a warning). 

[Trump] The president and his administration love to point out the discrimination that LGBTQ people face in other parts of the world, especially in Muslim nations like Iran. As Out's Mathew Rodriguez pointed out, this is an "old racist tactic."

"[U.S. ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell's] sudden interest in Iran’s antigay laws is strikingly similar to Trump’s rhetoric after the 2016 Pulse massacre in Orlando, Fla.," Rodriguez wrote. "After the deadly shooting, Trump used the 49 deaths as a way to galvanize support for an anti-Muslim agenda rather than find a way to support LGBTQ+ people. In pushing for immigration restrictions and a Muslim ban, Trump argued, he was the true pro-LGBTQ+ candidate. Rather than honor those who died, Trump used the tragedy as a way to stoke fear among the American people, and Grenell is taking similar actions with Iran — trying to reach an economic goal by painting the administration’s opponent as antigay."

For everyone who may have forgotten, Trump, unlike Hillary Clinton, never once visited the Pulse nightclub, even though he campaigned across the street.

It's simply laughable — insulting, really — for Trump to try to honor LGBTQ achievements in this nation. He has not just ignored LGBTQ rights, he's gone out of its way to appease his far-right followers by reversing them. Trump has done some of the damage obliquely by installing anti-LGBTQ Supreme Court justices (Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh), many antigay and anti-trans lower court judges, a homophobic secretary of State (Mike Pompeo) and chief of staff (Mick Mulvaney), all while the nation's most famous homophobe and transphobe serves as his vice-president (Mike Pence). 

Trump has also directly attacked the LGBTQ community by vowing to veto the Equality Act, rolling back protections for trans students, implementing a ban on trans people in the military, issuing an order allowing religiously affiliated health care providers to discriminate against LGBTQ patients, and stating he's fine with businesses discriminating against LGBTQ people. In all, GLAAD has counted 110 instances of Trump targeting the LGBTQ community.

"Actions speak louder than words," GLAAD stated in a press release. "This is a cheap political play and we see right through it. Your administration has attacked the rights of LGBTQ people more than 100 times. Attention media: It’s your responsibility to tell the real truth about President Donald Trump’s record on LGBTQ issues."

Trump's words are clear — disregard everything I've done to you, just be appreciative we don't jail you or hang you from a noose.

My gay Republican "friends" might do well to remember that wealthy and affluent European Jews thought their social status and business connections would protect them from the Nazis.  It did not turn out that way and many lost their lives and/or had their rights eliminated.   Trump's Christofascist base wants the same thing to happen to LGBT Americans. 

The Oxymoron (and Internalized Homophobia) of Gay Republicans

Being gay and being a Republican, in my view, ought to be mutually exclusive.  Why support a party that actively supports discrimination against you and seeks to roll back your civil rights (the Trump/Pence Justice Department has just filed a brief opposing LGBT workplace protections).  To me, it is akin to being a Jew in Germany in the early 1930's and being a member of the Nazi party. Yet based on 2018 results, roughly 18% of the LGBT community voted Republican seemingly either out of internalized homophobia or greed and a lust for lower taxes.  Some prominent members of this group are affluent gays who seem to believe that their financial/social status protects them from the results of the Trump/GOP anti-gay agenda even as they throw others in the LGBT community under the bus. They might do well to recall that wealth did not protect wealthy Jews during the Holocaust (I'd recommend the watch the movie, The Woman in Gold, if they need a primer). Now, with the surprising rise of Pete Buttigieg in the Democrat nomination contest we see these same individuals attacking Buttigieg even as they rally to defend Mike Pence, one of the worse homophobes in the GOP.  A piece in Politico looks at this phenomenon: 

Pete Buttigieg is creating a split-screen moment for gay Republicans: The rising 2020 presidential contender speaks passionately about the military, God and efficient government. Some gay conservatives have spoken positively about Buttigieg — a moderate-sounding Midwesterner who married his husband last year — being a leap forward for gay Americans and politicians.

But the South Bend, Ind., mayor’s public squabbles with Vice President Mike Pence are pushing some gay Republicans to fire back at Buttigieg to defend a leader of their party. The dust-up is riling up parts of the right and serving as a high-profile test of how the broader electorate might handle the nation's first prominent gay presidential candidate.

“What’s intriguing about this particular candidate is that he’s running on really, you could say, the ‘gay conservative platform,’” said Richard Tafel, who helped launch the Log Cabin Republicans and authored “Party Crasher,” a book about being a gay conservative activist. “He’s talking about his military service. He’s talking about his faith. And he keeps saying we should make a moral argument. So on those things that also makes him somewhat attractive to gay conservatives.”

The 37-year-old Buttigieg's rising stature within the Democratic presidential primary has moved some gay Republicans to defend him on a key front where he's vulnerable, pushing back against anti-gay attacks and sharing their own experiences. Their outspokenness could help shift conservative views on gay marriage and ultimately help Buttigieg connect with voters who would otherwise never give a gay candidate of either party a second look.

Guy Benson, a prominent conservative commentator who is gay, has jumped into Twitter debates to challenge derogatory statements about Buttigieg. When Republican E.W. Jackson said that a Buttigieg presidency would turn the country into a "homocracy," Benson commented he was "proud to have voted against this person."

“I think by just existing and doing his thing, it’s a step forward for the community,” Benson said in an interview. “It just kind of seems normal, which is I think indicative of progress. In terms of him as a candidate I think he is undeniably very bright. I think he is interesting. I think he can be very thoughtful on topics and deeply informed on a number of policy areas.”

“The perspective from which he speaks is one that I relate to, but his opinion on some of the policy issues I differ from greatly,” said Jerri Ann Henry, executive director of the Log Cabin Republicans. “But I still think I would rather have a debate with someone like him than someone like a Bernie Sanders, who I can’t even figure out where he’s coming from — a millionaire who rails against the 1 percent.”

Buttigieg's recent public skirmish with Pence, one of the nation's most prominent social conservatives [religious extremists] who worked with the mayor when he was Indiana governor, has fueled an early backlash on the right. Buttigieg rose to the upper tier of the Democratic race in part by criticizing Pence and Trump last month in a CNN town hall. The broadside, and others that followed, energized Buttigieg’s fundraising and jolted his campaign out of the bottom rungs.

“I think he made a crucial mistake when he started attacking Pence,” said Chadwick Moore, a prominent gay Republican who supports Trump. “They had a close working relationship in Indiana. It was somewhat close. Pence has been nothing but respectful and courteous to him and I think when he came after Pence it made him look opportunistic.”

The squabbling has rallied some gay Republicans to Pence’s defense, arguing that Buttigieg is trying to pick a fight with the vice president to cement his bona fides among gay liberals and the broader Democratic community.

Among gay Democrats, Pence is often criticized as the highest-ranking anti-gay official in the country. Pence was in the national spotlight as governor of Indiana in 2015 for pushing a controversial religious freedom bill that rallied gay Republicans and a wide swath of businesses against it.

Buttigieg, then a relatively unknown mayor even in the Midwest, offered a polite but public rebuke of Pence’s push — in line with the relatively cordial relationship between the two officials, despite their opposing views on some major policy points.

In interviews, multiple gay Republicans likened the situation facing gay Republicans today to what black Republicans felt during the 2008 presidential campaign when confronted with the prospect of Barack Obama becoming the nation's first African American president.

Caitlyn Jenner: I Was Wrong About Trump [and the GOP]

Most of the gay Republicans I know are white males with above average education and incomes who worry more about tax cuts and loss of white privilege than what happens to the fellow LGBT citizens.  They think that their skin color, education, and social connections will protect them no matter what adverse consequences befall others in the LGBT community.  Ironically, many wealthy European Jews thought the same thing as Nazism was sweeping across Europe.  Many of them ended up losing their lives in death camps or, if they were lucky, managed to flee with the clothes on their backs.  Caitlyn Jenner fits the stereotype that I describe and in 2016 she foolishly supported Trump and other Republican candidates insanely - in my view -  believing that Trump/Republicans would help transgender people and the LGBT community.  Anyone with a few years of experience in the gay activism arena could have told Jenner she was delusional.  Trump sold his soul (assuming he has one) to the Christofascists in June of 2016 and waging war on gays and transgender individuals in particular was a key part of the bargain.  As for Republicans in general, in state after state and in Congress they have blocked meaningful non-discrimination protections.  Now, in a Washington Post op-ed, Jenner admits that she was horribly wrong in believing Trump/Republicans.  Sadly, a number of local gay Republicans that I know are still drinking the Kool-Aid and refuse to see the GOP as the enemy.  Here are op-ed highlights: 

These past two years under President Trump have given me the opportunity to reflect on a lot of topics that have come up in the LGBTQ community and in our nation.

[M]y outlook has changed significantly from what it was during my highly publicized and glamorized early Caitlyn days, when my life as an out trans woman was just beginning.

Since then, I have learned and continue to learn about the obstacles our community faces, the politics that surround us and the places my voice can help. I have reflected on what my unique position of privilege means and how I can best use it to make a positive difference.

Following Trump’s election as president, I saw fertile ground for change within the Republican Party on LGBTQ issues. Trump was the first Republican presidential candidate to claim to support this valuable, vulnerable community, and I was encouraged by the applause he received when he said at the Republican National Convention in July 2016 that he would stand up for the LGBTQ community. Poll after poll showed that Americans’ views on LGBTQ issues were changing for the better . . . . I was optimistic that this was how I could leverage my privilege for change.

Despite the criticism I received from segments of the LGBTQ community for engaging with this administration, I remained hopeful for positive change.

Sadly, I was wrong. The reality is that the trans community is being relentlessly attacked by [Trump] this president. The leader of our nation has shown no regard for an already marginalized and struggling community. He has ignored our humanity. He has insulted our dignity. He has made trans people into political pawns as he whips up animus against us in an attempt to energize the most right-wing segment of his party, claiming his anti-transgender policies are meant to “protect the country.” This is politics at its worst.

Believing that I could work with Trump and his administration to support our community was a mistake. The recently leaked Department of Health and Human Services memo that suggests — preposterously and unscientifically — that the government ought to link gender to one’s genitalia at birth is just one more example in a pattern of political attacks.

It’s clear these policies have come directly from Trump, and they have been sanctioned, passively or actively, by the Republicans by whose continued support he governs. My hope in him — in them — was misplaced, and I cannot support anyone who is working against our community. I do not support Trump. I must learn from my mistakes and move forward.

I am more determined than ever to find the best way to bring trans issues to the fore of our social and political conversation, domestically and abroad. I need to listen more to the members of the LGBTQ community and to learn more. I need to better use my voice, my privilege and my foundation to advocate and support our community.

I must continue to educate political and corporate leaders about the issues of homelessness, job discrimination, violence, access to health care, prejudice in housing, depression, suicide and so many other issues that disproportionately affect our long-ignored community. . . . We will not be erased.

Despite her failings as an activist, Jenner has at least admitted that she was wrong - very wrong, in fact. Would that the local gay Republicans I know would come to their senses and (i) admit they were wrong, and (ii) work to defeat Republicans on November 6, 2018. 

Are Gay "Conservatives" Finally Realizing Trump Has Betrayed Them?

As a former Republican who witnessed first hand the beginning of the Christofascist takeover of the Republican Party base and closely followed the animus of Christofascist towards LGBT individuals, I long ago decided that being gay and being a Republican was somewhat akin to being a 1920's German Jew and belonging to the Nazi Party.  Sadly, a relatively small percentage of the LGBT community failed to accept that reality and supported Trump and the GOP in general.  Whether motivated by their greed and the allure of tax cuts, an inability to fully let go of homophobia that had internalized during their childhoods, or attracted by the racism that is a key component of today's GOP, these individuals backed a man and a party that are more or less their sworn enemies.  Now, as the Trump/Pence war against the LGBT community continues, some have seemingly pulled their heads out of their asses and are realizing that they betrayed not only themselves but the rest of the LGBT community.  A piece in The Daily Beast looks at this awakening that should have been obvious from the very beginning.  Here are article excerpts:

During his run for office, Donald Trump positioned himself as a champion of gay rights, someone who would bring the Republican Party into modernity on an increasingly settled civil rights cause. But well into his first year in the White House, those who hoped for the best have been disappointed and those who assumed the worst say their fears are realized.

The Trump administration’s record on LGBT issues has been defined by retrenchment, both sides concede. Many of the advances made under the Obama administration have disappeared, replaced by policies and directives that could have been written by an anachronistic social conservative instead of the cosmopolitan New York businessman occupying the Oval Office.

Among gay-rights advocates, few had higher hopes for this White House than Barron. He was largely responsible for arranging for Trump to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference in 2011—an event credited with helping bring the reality TV star into the GOP mainstream. And though the activist occasionally soured on Trump’s campaign, Barron also launched an LGBTers for Trump group and championed the argument that the Republican nominee would be inherently better for the community than Hillary Clinton. After the election, Barron wrote that Trump would be an ally, friend, and advocate.

Instead, Barron and others are alarmed at the direction the administration is taking. Trump is responsible for some of it, having signed a directive banning the recruitment of transgender troops. But much of it has originated from his agencies. The Justice Department has changed its position on whether sexual orientation is covered under the Civil Rights Act, withdrawn federal protections for transgender kids in schools, and said it will not prosecute organizations who cite religious objections when declining to serve gay customers.

Recently, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services quietly withdrew a 2014 rule that would have required longterm-care facilities to recognize same-sex marriages when deciding visitation rights and decision-making responsibilities (PDF). . . . .This week, the National Park Service abruptly decided to withdraw its sponsorship of New York’s pride flag, which had been dedicated at the iconic Stonewall National Monument.

“Trump’s supporters like to say, ‘It’s not what he says, it’s what he does that matters.’ That’s definitely the case when it comes to issues affecting LGBT Americans,” said Jimmy LaSalvia, who started the now-defunct conservative gay rights group GOProud along with Barron. “I never thought that Donald Trump was an anti-gay homophobe. I certainly didn’t think that when I met him back in 2011. But we’ve all learned a lot about who he really is since then. With his political pandering and posturing to endear himself to the intolerant wing of the GOP over the last few years, it doesn’t surprise me that this administration will go down as the most anti-LGBT in history.”

It was certainly not supposed to have played out this way. During the 2016 Republican National Convention, Trump vowed that he “would do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens from the violence and oppression of the hateful, foreign ideology [of Islamist terror].” When the conservative crowd applauded, he paused and added, “I have to say, as a Republican, it is so nice to hear you cheering for what I just said, thank you.”

“He will be the most gay-friendly Republican nominee for president ever,” Gregory T. Angelo, the president of the Log Cabin Republicans, insisted to The New York Times in April 2016.

Those who warned that Trump’s pro-gay rights rhetoric was just empty bluster are more heartsick than content when they say, “I told you so.”

“As the Russia investigation heats up and as his failures at basic governing pile up, I think gays will more and more become scapegoats. It’s a pretty old, standard playbook for political bullies,” said Richard Socarides, who served as White House special assistant and senior adviser to President Clinton. “Anyone who thought Trump would go easy on the gays was clearly wrong. The question now is not whether he will set us back, but how far.”

 esterday it was confirmed that Trump will be the keynote speaker at the upcoming "Value Voters Summit," a confab of many of the most strident gay-haters in America.  With his support shrinking, expect Trump to pile on more and more anti-gay attacks as he strives to keep evangelical Christian support.  I saw all of this coming and I have nothing but contempt for gays who are stupid enough - or perhaps bigoted enough - to have voted for Trump and who remain Republicans.  They are harming all of us. 

Alt-Right Gays Mock Blacks and the Transgender at NYC Confab

I left the Republican Party years ago before I publicly "came out" when it became crystal clear that (i) being gay and being Republican were inherently incompatible, (ii) being a Republican was incompatible with supporting constitutional rights for all citizens, and (iii) being a Republican and being a truly moral person were likewise incompatible. Things have only gotten worse over the intervening years.  Indeed, in my view, being gay and a Republican in the age of Trump is akin to being a 1930's German Jew and actively supporting the Nazi Party.  I truly do not grasp what would motivate one to want to remain a Republican other than some sort of lingering internalized homophobia and/or religious brainwashing. Some friends will no doubt take offense at this assessment , but seriously, they need to take a look in a mirror and ask themselves WTF are they doing.  A gathering of gay "conservatives" at a Republican gathering in New York City underscored the ugliness and moral failings of these "gay Republicans. Both BuzzFeed and The Daily Beast have pieces that look at the general misogyny that marked the event.  Here are excerpts from BuzzFeed:

A forum at the Metropolitan Republican Club in New York City on Thursday night was billed as an "all-star" collection of activists in the "new gay movement in the Republican Party." And indeed, panelists inside the tony brownstone on Manhattan's Upper East Side were among the country’s most notable conservative gay-rights activists.

But rather than detail how they were building a new movement — or discuss their influence in the nascent Trump administration — the gay men on stage spent most of two hours ridiculing the left while peppering their speeches with cheap cracks about transgender people.

They mocked President Obama’s LGBT liaison as "the most unattractive tranny," joked that Caitlyn Jenner hadn't had "the operation," and said Obama-era rules to protect transgender students were “horrifying.”

People of color and women fared little better with the all-white, five-member panel. One claimed the gender wage gap was "a total fucking myth," while another opined that black people don't face oppression because they aren't enslaved. Then he laughed about adopted Asian babies.

This week, nearly 100 days into Trump’s term, these gay Republican activists had a chance to assess their success.  Or they could make fun of people.

To illustrate the left’s knee-jerk histrionics over Trump, Lucian Wintrich, who led a project during the campaign called Twinks for Trump, blasted Obama's LGBT liaison — a transgender woman named Raffi Freedman-Gurspan.

“Begrudgingly, I’ll say ‘she,’” said Wintrich, implying that he didn’t consider her a woman. He went on to call her “the most unattractive tranny," a line that cast the packed room of Republicans into guffaws under golden chandeliers and star-spangled bunting.

BuzzFeed News followed up with [Fred] Karger about whether anti-transgender slurs and comments from other panelists would actually entice young voters to the party.  Karger said he’d tuned out those comments.

Sadly, such behavior is the norm for the Republican Party base: greed and inhumanity, if no outright hatred towards others are pillars of today's GOP.  In my view, no one moral and decent - much less LGBT - can be a Republican.  

Congressional Republicans Push for "Religious Liberty" Executive Order

With no legislative accomplishments in the first almost 100 days of the Trump/Pence regime despite Republican control of Congress and the White House, a move is again afoot to push through a falsely described "religious freedom" executive order which would, in effect, allow right wing Christians to ignore non-discrimination laws and target members of the LGBT community and perhaps cohabitating unmarried couples, women on contraception and even non-Christians for discrimination. The movement underscores the bankruptcy of Trump/the GOP that a rushed executive order to legalize discrimination - at least until a court strikes it down - would be viewed as an "accomplishment" by  Christofascists and the core of the GOP Base.  A piece in USA Today looks at this latest foul effort:

Dozens of Republican lawmakers are asking President Trump to scale back Obama-era protections for gays and lesbians in order to make good on a campaign promise to protect religious liberty.

In early February, Trump was reportedly considering an executive order that would reverse former president Barack Obama's orders prohibiting discrimination against gays and lesbians in the federal workforce or by federal contractors. But the order was never signed.

A group of 51 members of the House wrote to Trump this month to "request that you sign the draft executive order on religious liberty, as reported by numerous outlets on February 2, 2017, in order to protect millions of Americans whose religious freedom has been attacked or threatened over the last eight years." The letter has not been publicly released but was obtained by USA TODAY.

[O]n Monday, a senior White House official told USA TODAY that some sort of policy to protect religious liberty is still in the works, but that the president is trying to find middle ground. The official did not want to publicly discuss a policy that is still under development.

Beyond the workforce protections, the widely circulated draft order would have eliminated the contraceptive mandate that requires religious institutions to provide health insurance for birth control. Republicans lawmakers are also pushing for the order to allow for doctors to refuse to perform abortions based on religion. They also want to see protections for religious non-profits to be able to express political opinions without losing their tax-exempt status.

The letters signatories, all men except for Missouri Rep. Vicky Hartzler, include some of the Republican caucus’ most conservative members.  A similar letter was sent by Senate Republicans earlier this month.

[N]ot everyone sees religious liberty protections as necessary or even positive. Laura Durso of the progressive Center for American Progress told USA TODAY that freedom of religion is already protected by the First Amendment and any efforts to get additional protections will create "a license to discriminate across a wide range of federal programs."

JoDee Winterhof,  senior vice president for policy and political affairs at the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ advocacy organization, said if Trump went forward with the leaked order it would “allow an unprecedented expansion of tax-payer funded discrimination.”

As I have sad before, if one is LGBT and votes Republicans, it's akin to a early 1920's German Jew voting for the Nazi Party.  It is insanity and self-destructive.  If I am hurting feelings, I am not sorry. It is far past time for "gay Republicans" to stop deluding themselves and focus their votes and money on defeating every Republican elected official. 

The Much Deserved Implosion of Milo Yiannopoulos

As noted on prior occasions, I have no use for Milo Yiannopoulos and other gay "conservatives" who, in my view, are most motivated by either greed, racism or internalized homophobia.  Indeed, some personal acquaintances who will remain unnamed could use some intense therapy sessions to deal with their unvoiced self-loathing and masochism.  A column in Slate looks at the rise and even more rapid implosion of Yiannopoulos who has learned a harsh lesson in the willingness of the right to use supposed gay conservatives only so long as it fits the agenda.  Then one is discarded like worthless trash.  Yiannopoulos should be a lesson to other gays who allow themselves to be cynically used by their actual enemies.  Here are column excerpts:

You can thank Steve Bannon, now a central figure in Donald Trump’s administration, for making the clownish hustler Milo Yiannopoulos a star. As the editor of Breitbart, Bannon recruited Yiannopoulos to the site, where he published columns like “No, J.C. Penney, Fat People Should Absolutely Hate Themselves” and “Birth Control Makes Women Unattractive and Crazy.” If Trump is a poor person’s idea of a rich person, Yiannopoulos is a Trump voter’s fantasy of a decadent gay sophisticate. His shtick is to wrap various shades of reaction—anti-feminism, racism, anti-Semitism, hatred of Muslims—in camp, to sell bigotry as cheeky provocation. He and co-author Allum Bokhari put it this way, in a Breitbart ode to the alt-right: “Just as the kids of the 60s shocked their parents with promiscuity, long hair and rock’n’roll, so too do the alt-right’s young meme brigades shock older generations with outrageous caricatures, from the Jewish ‘Shlomo Shekelburg’ to ‘Remove Kebab,’ an internet in-joke about the Bosnian genocide.”

Yiannopoulos uses his gayness to grant absolution to his mostly straight right-wing audiences, telling them that by reveling in prejudice, they are bravely flouting taboos. During the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, an at event billed as an America First Unity Rally, Yiannopoulos told a crowd full of bikers and Alex Jones acolytes: “I might be a dick-sucking faggot, but I fucking hate the left … the left in this country is a cancer that you need to eradicate.” As a gay man, he added, he aims to be “transgressive, to be naughty, to be mischievous. And today in America that means being right-wing.”

It turns out the right isn’t quite as enamored of transgression as Yiannopoulos thought. In the past few days, his career has imploded, thanks to old but previously little-noticed recordings in which he celebrates sex between teenage boys and adult men. In quick succession, Yiannopoulos’ invitation to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference was withdrawn, his $250,000 Simon and Schuster book contract was canceled, and on Tuesday afternoon, he resigned from Breitbart. Even Richard Spencer, the white nationalist who coined the term alt-right, now dismisses him.

Yiannopoulos, a sworn enemy of victim culture, reacted to his sudden fall by playing the victim card. “I’m a gay man and a child-abuse victim,” he said, at a Tuesday afternoon press conference in SoHo. . . . Over the next 30 minutes, Yiannopoulos apologized, deflected, complained about a political witch hunt, and tried to cast himself as a performer being held to an unfairly literal journalistic standard.

Yiannopoulos’ act was all about baiting liberals over free speech; he’d say something repulsive, the left would react, and conservatives could play the defenders of edgy self-expression. In the end, however, the right shut him down the second he made conservatives uncomfortable. Going forward, even if any right-wingers are willing to be associated with him, it will be hard for him to continue the fiction that conservatives are uniquely open-minded. That means he’s no use to them, or to anyone, really. Poor snowflake.

"Conservative Gay" Milo Yiannopoulos' Book Deal Canceled

There are many self-loathing gays who cling to conservativism.  Some are closeted like, in my view, Republicans Rick Santorum and Ken Cuccinelli who are just a tad too hysterical about gays and gay relationships.  Then you have "out" gays who nonetheless cling to the GOP - think the Log Cabin Republicans - even as conservatives trash them and work to make them third class citizens.  Then there is alt-right provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos who mainly seeks to shock, insult and denigrate the rest of the LGBT community.  In my view, all three categories of individuals require serious mental health interventions, but Yiannopoulos falls into a category all his own.  Seemingly, his never ending effort to shock and appall has at last backfired.  In the wake of newly released videos that suggest a support for pedophilia, he finds his misconceived book deal cancelled, himself dis invited from CPAC, a gathering of right wing extremists, and his job at the always sleazy Breitbart News at risk.    USA Today looks at  Yiannopoulos' self-immolation.  Here are excerpts:

Milo Yiannopoulos' book Dangerous was canceled abruptly Monday after Republican conservatives released clips of videos-with-audio in which he seemed to condone sex between men and boys.

In a terse statement released Monday afternoon, the right-wing provocateur's publisher said: "After careful consideration, Simon & Schuster and its Threshold Editions imprint have canceled publication of Dangerous by Milo Yiannopoulos."

Minutes later, Yiannopoulos posted this on Facebook: "They canceled my book."

Yiannopoulos' provocative right-wing persona (he attacked feminists and trashed women who used birth control, to name a few of his views), helped get him a reported $250,000 book deal from Threshold Editions, a conservative imprint of Simon & Schuster, which was due to release Dangerous in June.

The gay British writer, who has collected kudos in the era of Donald Trump as a self-described "dangerous" provocateur, teetered on the edge of disaster Monday after Republican conservatives released clips of videos-with-audio in which he talked about his own past as a teenager who had sex with men and suggested that some young teen boys might be old enough to give consent to such sexual relationships.

Yiannopoulos tried on Facebook to defend himself but it didn't matter. He was abruptly dis-invited from speaking at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference starting this week in Washington, according to a tweet from the American Conservative Union chairman Matt Schlapp.

Meanwhile, Yiannopoulos' employer, Breitbart News, was reported by Fox Business Network and Washingtonian magazine to be considering whether to fire him from his writer/editor job where he has gained fame and infamy in equal measure while gleefully aiming vitriol at liberals, gays, Jews, foreigners, Democrats, plus many others.

Yiannopoulos has so far not commented on his CPAC snub. But he fought back against his critics in a long post Monday on Facebook that he called "a note for idiots."  He denied being in favor of pedophilia, acknowledged he does believe there are relationships between "younger men" and older men that can help a young gay man, and admitted he shouldn't have used the word "boy" in discussing those relationships.

The clips, dug up after Yiannopoulos was invited to speak at CPAC, record Yiannopoulos discussing Jews, sexual consent, statutory rape, child abuse and homosexuality. He also joked — in an "edgy way," he claimed — about his own teen sexual encounter with a priest. 

Sorry, but I cannot summon an ounce of sympathy for this vile individual.  Karma can be a bitch and he royally deserves to receive what he has dished out.

Trump's New Campaign Leaders Are Rabidly Anti-LGBT

Homophobes Kellyane Conway and Stephen Bannon

While The Donald continues to pretend to be gay friendly and some gay Republicans continue to keep their heads firmly up their asses and support the man, his picks for the new leaders of his campaign tell the true story.  Both Stephen Bannon of Breitbart News and GOP pollster Kellyanne Conway have a history of being rabidly anti-gay.  As the saying goes, actions speak louder than words and Trump's picks speak volumes.   The New Civil Rights Movement looks at the history of anti-LGBT actions of Bannon and Conway.  Here are story highlights:

Donald Trump wrote on Facebook late Tuesday that he'll "fight to ensure that every American is treated equally" and "reject bigotry and hatred and oppression in all its forms." 

Hours later, it was revealed that Trump is shaking up his campaign, naming Breitbart News head Stephen Bannon as executive director, and GOP pollster Kellyanne Conway as manager.   As it turns out, those appointments aren't exactly consistent with Trump's Facebook post. 

As recently as May, Bannon railed against transgender rights during an interview with the American Family Association's Sandy Rios. According to Right Wing Watch, Bannon accused retailer Target of “trying to exclude people who are decent, hard-working people who don’t want their four-year-old daughter to have to go into a bathroom with a guy with a beard in a dress.”

Media Matters has more on Breitbart News' penchant for anti-LGBT reporting:   

Breitbart.com regularly publishes articles with anti-LGBT slurs “trannies” and “faggot” in headlines. Breitbart contributor Austin Ruse, president of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute (C-FAM) -- an organization designated as an anti-LGBT hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center -- is largely the face of Breitbart’s anti-LGBT coverage.

Meanwhile, Conway is a longtime pollster for the anti-LGBTQ National Organization for Marriage, according to the Human Rights Campaign.

In September 2014, Conway appeared on a panel with former NOM President Maggie Gallagher, where they encouraged Libertarians to take up socially conservative causes, Right Wing Watch reports: 

Conway told the crowd that “values voters and libertarians have a great deal in common” from opposition to “big government” and abortion rights to being “sick of lawyers in black robes making stuff up” to a refusal to “redefine” family to be “whatever feels cool.” She also saw an opening to win over libertarians with the Religious Right’s increasing reliance on persecution rhetoric, or what she called the “assault on religious liberty in so many parts of our culture.”

Gay Republicans are Flocking to Hillary Clinton

I was a Republican for the majority of my adult life and came from a family of Republicans. However, having watched the GOP slide to hate and extremism for some time now - I resigned from my city committee seat years ago - I have argued for some time that unless one is (i) a self-loathing LGBT individual, perhaps still scarred by a fundamentalist religious upbringing, and/or (ii) an extremely wealthy, self-centered individual (such as billionaire Peter Thiel) whose wealth insulates them from the discrimination that the rest of us face, there is no way that someone who is LGBT can support the Republican Party or its candidates at any level of government, including the presidency. As Metro Weekly is reporting, some gay Republicans have seemingly "seen the light" - or pulled their heads out of their asses - and are flocking to Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential contest.  Here are some article highlights:

With three months until Election Day, Joe Swartz, a 32-year-old gay conservative, is doing the unthinkable: Supporting Hillary Clinton for president.

“I’m part of an organization called Republicans for Hillary. And we have been lambasted significantly by many Republicans about what terrible turncoats we are, how much we need to change our affiliation, and ‘My God, Trump is not great, but the alternative is Hillary,'” says Swartz. “And I say, ‘Exactly. The alternative is Hillary.’

“Imagine how low the bar of your candidates has to be,” he continues, “that people who have been on your side for 10, 20 years, people who have gone out and volunteered for Republican campaigns, are now voting for Hillary Clinton, someone they naturally loathed, because she has a modicum of normalcy.”

It’s a dramatic turnaround from 2015, when Swartz was confident Republicans would take back the White House. “We were gearing up to the idea that this is the end of eight years of Democratic rule,” he says. “It was really ours to lose.”

But then Donald Trump started winning primaries, and everything changed. After Trump had cemented his victory, Clinton became the only viable option for Swartz.

Swartz could be written off as a disgruntled Republican who can’t accept the result of the primaries, but as Trump becomes the figurehead of the GOP, several prominent Republicans and fiscal conservatives have begun to distance themselves from the party. And that means weighing the possibility of supporting Clinton for the presidency.

On Monday, Sally Bradshaw, a top advisor to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and a lifelong Republican, announced she was officially switching her party affiliation to independent, and refusing to vote for Trump. Bradshaw told CNN in an email that, if the race was close in Florida, she would be casting her ballot for Clinton.

“But,” she added, “we are at a crossroads and have nominated a total narcissist — a misogynist — a bigot. This is a time when country has to take priority over political parties. Donald Trump cannot be elected president.”

On Tuesday, Congressman Richard Hanna (R-N.Y.) became the first Republican member of Congress to come out in support of Clinton’s candidacy. 

Jimmy LaSalvia, the former co-founder of the LGBT conservative group GOProud, is another Hillary convert. . . . Trump’s actions on the campaign trail and his vision for the GOP have forced LaSalvia to “shed his partisan loyalty” and leave the Republican Party. It’s made the unthinkable — voting for Hillary Clinton — a reality.

“Hillary Clinton has been the enemy my entire adult life,” he says. “I never thought I’d vote for a Clinton, but there’s just no choice here. And even for people who aren’t ready to admit they’re for Hillary, more and more people will start to consider her, even if they’d never considered voting Democrat before.”

Another Republican risking their political career is Yale Scott, a George W. Bush appointee who worked in the White House and the State Department. He’s as Republican as they come, something all but ensured by growing up in Oklahoma. But now, the 36-year-old is supporting Clinton, fundraising for her, and volunteering at campaign events.

“I definitely still align myself with a strong faith and being fiscally conservative, but this election is so important because Donald Trump is dangerous for our country,” says Scott. “I feel like he’s a loose cannon. 

Quote of the Day:Noah Michelson on How Trump Really Views Gay

Trump meeting with leaders of anti-gay hate groups

With what Donald Trump says generally being 75% or more untrue, I remain dumbfounded how any non-self-loathing LGBT American can support Trump.  Even gay billionaires cannot fully escape the bigotry and discrimination that many of us continue to face.  Noah Michelson at Huffington Post sums up Trump's approach to gays in a single paragraph: 

Donald Trump has vowed to appoint judges who will overturn the Supreme Court’s ruling on marriage equality, has stated that he supports states’ rights to pass laws that give permission to discriminate against queer people, and he recently courted 400 of the most anti-queer leaders in America, so his promise to protect queer people (especially as the leader of the Republican Party which just passed “the most anti-LGBT platform in history”) is nothing but a pile of steaming elephant shit and anyone who tries to tell you otherwise ― including Trump himself ― is lying to you and themselves. 

The Utter Failure of the Log Cabin Republicans

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