Trump, Brett Kavanaugh and the Effort to Destroy LGBTQ Rights

With the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court, the sense of dread and impending doom that has lingered over me and many others since the disastrous results of the 2016 presidential election has again intensified.  I suspect even straight LGBT allies do not fully appreciate the corrosive effect living in fear that one's rights will be curtailed or abolished at the whim of a malignant narcissist and a hate-filled minority empowered by a flawed U.S. Constitution which has concentrated too much power in rural, reactionary states. As a history nerd, if you will, who has read much about the rise of Hitler in Germany, I cannot help but wonder whether some of Hitler's future victims had similar fears as they saw Germany slowly embrace insanity and barbarism.  A piece in Huffington Post looks at the threat that Brett Kavanaugh may pose to LGBT Americans in particular and American democracy in general.  Here are highlights:

There was some attention ― and perhaps even a bit of hope ― this week after the anti-LGBTQ American Family Association came out immediately in opposition to Judge Brett Kavanaugh (urging members to call their senators), President Donald Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court to replace retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy.

The AFA was rattled by Kavanaugh’s previous statements that precedent actually matters. Like National Review’s David French and other social conservatives, the AFA’s first choice for a nominee on Trump’short list was Judge Amy Coney Barrett, who has been very clear about how religious faith should guide a judge’s decisions.

But after a couple of days, the AFA walked that back . . . . Maybe the AFA realized something we all should be enormously concerned about: Kavanaugh’s beliefs on marriage equality and Obergefell v. Hodges might matter far less than his breathtaking views on expansive presidential power when it comes to the rights of LGBTQ people.

When the president is an authoritarian, after all, allowing him expansive powers will be far more efficient at curtailing the rights of minorities than waiting for the Supreme Court to weigh in on every case, which might take years to reach it.That, of course, is not to say that Kavanaugh isn’t on board with the anti-LGBTQ agenda. As I’ve been writing about for the past few years, the goal of anti-LGBTQ leaders is to turn gay marriage into second-class marriage. This was the plan well before the Obergefell ruling, as I sat in on a panel in 2014 at the Values Voter Summit where prominent anti-LGBTQ leaders discussed how they would do to marriage equality what they have done to abortion rights: chip away at it over years to diminish it dramatically. 

That assault on marriage equality has only just begun, with the “religious liberty” crusade lookingto carve out exemptions for those who oppose LGBTQ rights. Whether it is bakers and florists or adoption agencies, the idea is to allow religious objectors to discriminate.Thus with Kavanaugh, the question isn’t whether he believes in precedent or would overturn Obergefell outright. It’s about where he stands on carving out these exemptions.

Neil Gorsuch (for whom Collins voted) in his confirmation hearings called marriage equality “absolutely settled law.” . . . . But Gorsuch has gone on to assault LGBTQ rights, most notably in a dissent that was seen as an open invitation to the state of Texas to challenge or carve out exceptions to Obergefell.

We can expect the same of Kavanaugh. An analysis by political scientist Lee Epstein puts Kavanaugh to the right of Gorsuch and Justice Samuel Alito and just slightly to the left of the farthest-right justice, Clarence Thomas. It’s hard to imagine any scenario in which a justice in that position would rule in favor of LGBTQ rights. Cases will be coming to the Supreme Court regarding adoption laws and gay couples, the rights of transgender students and transgender people serving in the military and businesses denying service to LGBTQ people based on the business owners’ religious beliefs. . . . There’s no question another case regarding a business owner who wants a religious exemption to serving queer people will reach the court. 

But even more threatening is Kavanaugh’s view of expansive presidential power ― an issue Democrats are now focusing on,as it seems directly related to why Trump might have chosen him. Kavanaugh has written that Congress should pass a law that protects presidents from lawsuits,indictments and investigations like the Russia probe. And his decisions have shown he backs a concentration of power in the executive branch on international and domestic issues. He supports the unitary executive notion of presidential power. 

That could have dire consequences regarding Trump’s decisions to ban transgender people from the military and sign other draconian executive orders. A far-reaching religious liberty executive order ― which would have allowed for broad-based discrimination against LGBTQ people, women and other groups ― was slowed down by the administration last year and replaced with a series of less expansive ones, in part, it appears, because of fears the order would face a legal challenge.

But with Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court, such far-reaching orders could be deemed as passing constitutional muster, giving Trump further power to assault LGBTQ rights ― and the rights of many other minorities ― on his own, with the stroke of a pen. And that would bring Trump much closer to what seems to be his clear aim, establishing a dictatorship.

Be very, very afraid.

Bigotry and Discrimination Masquerading as "Religious Liberty"

Yes, I am still livid over the Trump/Pence move to make religious belief - and the hate and bigotry that evangelical Christianity spews on a daily basis - above all other rights.  And yes, my anger extends to those who voted these two nasty men into office. Having followed hate groups that masquerade as "family values" and "Christian" organizations for well over two decades, there have to consistent themes to be seen in their agenda: (i) impose a theocracy on America, and (ii) seek total freedom to denigrate and abuse those who do not subscribe to their foul version of religious belief.   Even with those who claim no religious affiliation now the largest religious group in America, thanks to Trump/Pence and Congressional Republicans only too willing to prostitute themselves, the rights of the Christofascists are on the rise and the rights of the rest of us, especial those who are LGBT or female are on the decline.  All so that Christofascists can mistreat anyone who might by their rights and very existence threaten the fairy tale world of the "godly folk."  A piece in The Atlantic looks at this dangerous trend.  Here are excerpts:

Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a government-wide memo to bolster federal protections for religious liberties on Friday, a move that could also weaken the federal government’s ability to prevent gender and LGBT discrimination. . . . . The principles don’t create new protections against religious discrimination; instead, they instruct officials to give greater deference to religious-liberty claims under existing statutory and judicial protections.

The memo places the Justice Department’s full weight behind the Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to roll back Obama-era legal interpretations that favored women and LGBT Americans. It prioritizes claims of religious-liberty violations over virtually every other concern, including anti-discrimination protections for gay, lesbian, and transgender Americans. And it invites Americans to invoke their faith to opt out of a range of federal rules and regulations when relevant.

The most immediate effect came from the Department of Health and Human Services, where officials issued new rules to largely dismantle the contraceptive mandate for health insurance. . . . Social conservatives have fought the mandate for years, arguing it compelled employers to violate their religious beliefs. Defenders said it insulated employees and their medical decisions from the personal beliefs of their employers.

In practical terms, my colleague Vann Newkirk explained, the new rules will now allow virtually any employer to claim the exception and stop providing employees with insurance plans that include contraception.

The ACLU said it would challenge the administration’s reversal only hours after the announcement, arguing it violates the Constitution’s religious-freedom and equal-protection guarantees.

Democratic-led states could also join the fight. “We have been anticipating this awful idea and have already begun working with other states to evaluate any legal response that may be appropriate to protect our citizens’ private decisions and access to affordable healthcare,” Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring said in a statement.

Because the memo gives maximum latitude to invocations of religious belief, it could limit discrimination claims made by gay, lesbian, and transgender Americans.

“This guidance is designed to do one thing—create a license to discriminate against the LGBTQ community and others, sanctioned by the federal government and paid for by taxpayers,” Vanita Gupta, who led the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division during the Obama administration, said in a statement. Chad Griffin, the president of the Human Rights Campaign, accused Trump of furthering a “cynical and hateful agenda” and said the memo “will enable systematic, government-wide discrimination that will have a devastating impact on LGBTQ people and their families.”

Sessions has already undertaken multiple steps to reverse Obama-era protections for LGBT rights. The day before releasing Friday’s memo, he revoked guidance issued by former attorney general Eric Holder that had instructed U.S. attorneys to interpret gender identity as part of the Civil Rights Act of 1964’s ban on discrimination of the basis of “sex.” The interpretation widened those protections to include transgender Americans. Sessions replaced it with guidance advising that the protections only applied to biological sex. . . . [this administration] will not allow people of faith to be targeted, bullied, or silenced anymore,’” the attorney general wrote.

Sessions continues the myth of Christian persecution that the far right hate groups have sought to fan for years.  The truth is that there is no such persecution.  The only thing that had happened up until now is that the Christofascists' ability to target, bully and silence others was restricted so as to protect the civil liberties of others and the right of others to reject Christofascist dogma.  Trump/Pence/Sessions have now given these false martyrs the to persecute others at will.  All they have to do is claim religious belief as their motivation and they throw off all the restraints of non-discrimination laws. They have achieved the special rights they have long sought.  Moral and decent people should be very afraid.

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. 

Christofascist Groups Pushing Trump for "Religious Liberty" Executive Order

As noted in previous post, in June, 2016, Donald Trump met with a who's who of Christian extremists and hate group leaders such as Tony Perkins, president of Family Research Council, in New York City.  The goal of the meeting? To win the support and, ideally endorsement, of these individuals in order to swing the fundamentalist and evangelical Christian vote to Trump.  Trump was successful and in the process reportedly promised to appoint anti-gay justices to the Supreme Court and to sign the dishonestly named "First Amendment Defense Act" which would allow Christian extremists to discriminate against gays and anyone else who did not conform to the Medieval sexual mores of the Christofascists.  Seemingly, Trump may have also promised to sign an executive order allowing open discrimination based on professed religious belief. Trump has honored part of his bargain by nominating Judge Neil Gorsuch who believes that religious belief should override civil rights of others as demonstrated in his opinions at the 10 Circuit Court of Appeals.  Now, the Christofascists are demanding that Trump give them the promised executive order.  Right Wing Watch looks at the situation:

More than the 150 members of the secretive right-wing network known as the Council for National Policy have signed a letter calling on President Trump to sign an executive order “protecting the practical exercise of religious freedom,” something Religious Right leaders have been clamoring for since Trump took office. 

On Wednesday, Fox News pundit and serial promoter of bogus religious persecution stories Todd Starnes outed himself as a member of the CNP in writing about the letter.

The Council for National Policy is a network of leaders from the religious and political right, whose membership includes both big names and lesser-known fringe figures. A 2014 membership list obtained by the Southern Poverty Law Center revealed that the CNP even has room for extremists like neo-confederate Christian Reconstructionist Michael Peroutka. According to Starnes, who says Trump’s election was the result of divine intervention, other signers include “CNP President Tony Perkins, former Attorney General Edwin Meese, Morton Blackwell, Bob McEwen, Kelly Shackelford, Becky Norton Dunlop, Chad Connelly, Dr. James Dobson and Penny Nance.”

A month ago, Sarah Posner reported in The Nation on a leaked draft of the executive order, which legal experts said was of “sweeping” and “staggering” scope. If signed it would create wholesale exemptions from a range of nondiscrimination laws and regulations “for people and organizations who claim religious objections to same-sex marriage, premarital sex, abortion, and trans identity.” The order could empower government employees to refuse to provide basic government services to gay people or couples or unmarried parents.

Posner’s article quotes a Lambda Legal attorney who says the draft order is similar to a law signed by the Mississippi governor last year, “which a federal district court ruled violated both the Establishment Clause and the Equal Protection Clause.” That case is on appeal.

The desire to get federal courts to embrace the right’s vision of religious liberty was one of the major reasons Religious Right leaders rallied around Trump after he promised them the Supreme Court of their dreams. In that regard, it is noteworthy that Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch ruled as an appeals court judge in the Hobby Lobby case, which for the first time gave for-profit corporations the right to claim exemption from laws protecting their employees based on the religious beliefs of the company and its owners. That’s a major reason that the Religious Right is thrilled about the Gorsuch nomination.

Those who believe in religious freedom for all should be very fearful of this effort to grant special rights to Christofascists via these efforts to grant a license to discriminate to right wing Christians.

The Warlike Unity of Gay Americans Against Trump

A piece in the New Yorker looks at a possible strength that the LGBT community my have in helping to lead the resistance to Der Trumpenführer's animus fueled regime: the fact that we cross all races and economic levels, come from many religious backgrounds,  and span literally all other minority groups.  Add in our allies and we have a network that can help galvanize opposition to Trump's illegitimate presidency.   Other than Muslims, LGBT Americans will likely be among the most targeted groups under the Trump/Pence nightmare, especially given the ascendancy of the Christofascists among the regime's inner circle.  We have an obligation to ourselves and to the future of the nation to make sure that Trump/Pence goes down to rejection and, with luck, impeachment.  The people need to take back their country from the billionaires and would be modern day fascists.  Here are article excerpts:

We have faced institutional oppression for as long as society has existed,” Corey Johnson, a young, gay New York City Council member, said on Saturday afternoon. “Progress is not guaranteed.” He was speaking to the several thousand demonstrators who had gathered outside Manhattan’s Stonewall Inn, the birthplace of the gay-rights movement. The last time such a large crowd converged on that spot, in June, it was to mourn: forty-nine men and women, many of them college-aged Latinos, had just been murdered at Pulse, a gay night club in downtown Orlando; the whole nation seemed to join in solidarity with its vulnerable citizens, even if Donald Trump, seizing on the shooter’s apparent allegiance to ISIS, tweeted that the murders proved him “right on radical Islamic terrorism.” Now, with Trump’s brand of hateful opportunism given the full force of law, the community came together again, to steel itself against threats to come and to protest the progress that has already been rolled back. As Johnson put it, referring to Trump’s anti-Muslim immigration ban, “We will treat injustices done against our neighbors as if they had been done against us.”

Trump’s ascension is driving the gay-rights movement to embrace its greatest natural strength: its extension across lines of race and class. Zeke Stokes, a vice-president at GLAAD, told me, “Our top priority is to make sure that we are locking arms with other parts of the progressive movement,” and Hari Nef, the trans actress and model, led her remarks at the rally with the legend of Marsha P. Johnson, a black trans woman who is said to have thrown the shot glass that started the Stonewall riots. . . . “They don’t know that we are Muslims, we are women, we are transgender, we are Mexican,” Carmelyn Malalis, the city’s commissioner on human rights, told the crowd. “They don’t know that we are united and never leave a brother or sister behind. Not ever.”

Such unity, loving and warlike, is the only defense against an Administration whose treatment of the vulnerable seems, like its whole agenda, to combine pernicious intentions with minimal planning.  . . . The left is sometimes ridiculed for its factionalism—its thicket of nonprofit support systems, its acronym for every gradation of identity. But when you shake one part of that structure, you learn how durably it is fastened to all the others.

The nationwide uprisings of the past weeks—from the Women’s March to the resistance to the immigration ban—have reminded us that, although the people’s power can be gathered by revanchist right-wingers and finance-friendly Democrats, it belongs ultimately to the people themselves.

Trump’s "Religious Freedom" Order Reveals Sweeping Plans to Legalize Discrimination

A post yesterday suggested that folks should not be tricked by Donald Trump, a/k/a Der Fuhrer's, purported decision to leave President Obama's LGBT supportive executive orders in place.  Based n a leaked draft of Der Fuhrer's proposed "religious freedom" executive order, any rights left in place by virtue of Obama's executive orders will be wiped out.  Thus, Trump can claim he maintained LGBT protections even as he issue a plan to legalize massive anti-LGBT discrimination.  The man is a foul douche bag - and that description is far too kind.  A leaked draft executive order titled “Establishing a Government-Wide Initiative to Respect Religious Freedom,” reveals frightening and sweeping plans by the Trump administration to legalize discrimination.  Such has always been the goal of the Christofascists who backed Trump and extracted promises from him in return.  The Nation looks at the details of this foul plan.  Here are article highlights:

A leaked copy of a draft executive order titled “Establishing a Government-Wide Initiative to Respect Religious Freedom,” obtained by The Investigative Fund and The Nation, reveals sweeping plans by the Trump administration to legalize discrimination. 

The four-page draft order, a copy of which is currently circulating among federal staff and advocacy organizations, construes religious organizations so broadly that it covers “any organization, including closely held for-profit corporations,” and protects “religious freedom” in every walk of life: “when providing social services, education, or healthcare; earning a living, seeking a job, or employing others; receiving government grants or contracts; or otherwise participating in the marketplace, the public square, or interfacing with Federal, State or local governments.”

The draft order seeks to create wholesale exemptions for people and organizations who claim religious or moral objections to same-sex marriage, premarital sex, abortion, and trans identity, and it seeks to curtail women’s access to contraception and abortion through the Affordable Care Act. 

Language in the draft document specifically protects the tax-exempt status of any organization that “believes, speaks, or acts (or declines to act) in accordance with the belief that marriage is or should be recognized as the union of one man and one woman, sexual relations are properly reserved for such a marriage, male and female and their equivalents refer to an individual’s immutable biological sex as objectively determined by anatomy, physiology, or genetics at or before birth, and that human life begins at conception and merits protection at all stages of life.”

The breadth of the draft order, which legal experts described as “sweeping” and “staggering,” may exceed the authority of the executive branch if enacted. It also, by extending some of its protections to one particular set of religious beliefs, would risk violating the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution.

“This executive order would appear to require agencies to provide extensive exemptions from a staggering number of federal laws—without regard to whether such laws substantially burden religious exercise,” said Marty Lederman, a professor at Georgetown University Law Center and an expert on church-state separation and religious freedom.

The exemptions, Lederman said, could themselves violate federal law or license individuals and private parties to violate federal law. 

The leaked draft maintains that, as a matter of policy, “Americans and their religious organizations will not be coerced by the Federal Government into participating in activities that violate their conscience.”

It sets forth an exceptionally expansive definition of “religious exercise” that extends to “any act or refusal to act that is motivated by a sincerely held religious belief, whether or not the act is required or compelled by, or central to, a system of religious belief.” “It’s very sweeping,” said Ira Lupu, a professor emeritus at the George Washington University Law School and an expert on the Constitution’s religion clauses and on the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). “It raises a big question about whether the Constitution or the RFRA authorizes the president to grant religious freedom in such a broad way.”

In particular, said Lupu, the draft order “privileges” a certain set of beliefs about sexual orientation and gender identity—beliefs identified most closely with conservative Catholics and evangelical Christians—over others. That, he said, goes beyond “what RFRA might authorize” and may violate the Establishment Clause.

[T]he new draft order codifies a laundry list of claims advanced by the Christian right in recent years as indicating that the advance of LGBT rights has put the religious freedom of conservative Christians at risk. “They would say this is a nondiscrimination order,” said Lambda Legal’s Pizer. “We disagree. We would say being denied the ability to discriminate against others is not discrimination against you.”

Images of the draft executive order are here: 

GOP Gov. Sam Brownback Issues Executive Order on "Religious Liberty"

GOP Governor Sam Brownback of Kansas has inflicted untold damage on the economy of the state of Kansas and put the state's credit rating in peril as a result of his implementation (with the help of GOP members of the state legislature) of a classic version of the GOP's myth that slashing taxes for the rich will somehow magically generate more revenues.  The increase in revenues never occurred and education spending and numerous other state programs had to be drastically cut to balance the state budget.  Despite such gross mismanagement, Brownback squeaked by in his re-election effort largely because of the knuckle dragging Christofascists in his state.  Now, as a pay back and a further case of self-prostitution to this foul element of the population, Brownback has signed a "religious freedom" executive order aimed at granting special rights to religious extremists in the wake of the ruling in Obergefell.  Here are highlights from the Wichita Eagle:

Gov. Sam Brownback issued an executive order Tuesday prohibiting state government from taking action against clergy members or religious organizations that deny services to couples based on religious beliefs.

Among other things, the order is intended to protect religious organizations that provide adoption services for the state from having to place children with gay couples if it conflicts with their religious beliefs.

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/article26668207.html#storylink=cpy

The governor's order came the same day that state workers were told their same-sex spouses could be added to their health plans.

Brownback said the order protects “Kansas clergy and religious organizations from being forced to participate in activities that violate their sincerely and deeply held beliefs.”

The order explicitly protects religious organizations that provide “social services or charitable services,” meaning that it extends beyond the wedding ceremony.

Tom Witt, executive director of Equality Kansas, a gay rights organization, called the order a “dog whistle” and said that it appears to “enable religious organizations that use taxpayer money to provide services to deny services to gay and lesbian couples.”

Micah Kubic, executive director of the Kansas chapter of the ACLU, said in a statement that the order means “a homeless shelter that received a state contract or grant could refuse family housing to a gay couple with a child, or a foster care agency could refuse to place a child in their custody with the child’s family member just because the family member was in a same-sex relationship – and the state could not require them to treat all families equally.”

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/article26668207.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/article26668207.html#storylink=cpy

The governor issued an executive order earlier this year that eliminated a protection against discrimination for gay state workers that had been established through executive order by Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius.

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/article26668207.html#storylink=cpy

Ron Nelson, a family law expert from Lenexa, said the order would mean that religious organizations that contract with the state to provide adoption services could refuse to place a child with a gay couple.  “Any organization that contracts with the state that says their religious beliefs don’t allow them to do something, then they don’t have to do it,” Nelson said.

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/article26668207.html#storylink=cpy

In my opinion, tawdry whores have more integrity and virtue than Brownback.