Tiana Lowe:
Another week, another protest against the president. Russian hookers and pathetic attempts at infrastructure week aside, the never-ending cavalcade of self-aggrandizement has to be the most annoying feature of Trump’s America. To be fair, some of the protests so far have had honest grounding in Trump’s behavior and record. One could argue that the Women’s March held weight thanks to Trump’s disdainful rhetoric about women or that the People’s Climate March was necessary because Trump had called anthropogenic climate change a concept “created by and for the Chinese” as recently as 2012. But the upcoming LGBTQ+ Equality March has little to no basis in reality.
At the beginning of the century, Hillary Clinton was proudly declaring that marriage is between a man and a woman on the Senate floor while Barack Obama was doing so in the pages of The Audacity of Hope. Donald Trump did the same in a 2000 interview with The Advocate, but he also called for the inclusion of sexual orientation as a protected class under the 1964 Civil Rights Act and a “strong domestic-partnership law that guarantees gay people the same legal protections and rights as married people.”
From his days of publicly supporting AIDS foundations in the ’80s through decades of promoting openly gay staffers through the Trump Organization, Trump has continually reflected cosmopolitan and libertarian sensibilities about LGBTQ+ rights. Yet while Clinton and Obama “evolved” on the issue of gay marriage, the media has branded Trump as “flip-flop[ping].” (Trump announced that he was “fine with” same-sex marriage immediately after winning the presidency.)
Despite criticism from both sides, Trump largely stood by his “New York values” throughout the 2016 presidential campaign, paying just enough lip service to the evangelical Right to cement his working-class base while still emerging above the Republican field in condemning North Carolina’s practically unnecessary “bathroom bill.” His Department of Justice did not withdraw the Obama administration’s lawsuit against the state until the North Carolina legislature replaced it. Trump’s religious-liberty executive order was nominal at best. And between the platforming of Peter Thiel at the Republican National Convention, who famously announced, “I am proud to be gay, I am proud to be a Republican, but most of all, I am proud to be an American,” and the tapping of the openly gay Richard Grenell as the U.S. ambassador to NATO, the LGBTQ+ community has had more representation thanks to the Trump administration than any other American presidency, save for maybe that of Obama.
Americans have the right to peacefully protest for whatever they want, but what does anyone honestly want out of the Equality March? For all the fearmongering about the vice president, Pence has not even come close to social policy. Much to the dismay of many in his own party, Trump will not touch marriage equality and has taken a relatively neutral stance on trans rights. For the libertarian-minded, Trump’s ambivalence is an incredible step in the right direction.
So what? What now? With a president who openly condemns his Justice Department, contradicts his communications team, and cannot pass meaningful legislation, how is the most progressive Republican president on LGBTQ+ issues worthy of protest?
Because this is not an LGBTQ+ march. It’s an intersectional one. Just listen to the organizers:
All their looking for are the News Cameras to appear on the nightly news maybe of TODAY SHOW,GMA,20/20,CBS SUNDAY MORNING,60 MINUTES, or maybe some liberal rag like TIME,PEOPLE,ROLLINGSTONE or the NYT’s, or some liberal daytime talk show
The Left is “eating its own” faster than most can keep up.
In So Cal the “Gay Pride” event had to change its name so as to prevent any of the conservative gays from being in attendance.
In NY the BLM protestors now scream, “No Justice, No Pride!”
And those blacks forced the parade to have to be rerouted or run them over.
At an Antifada protest there were black and trans (white) antifadas while two black video journalist tried to get answers.
The black antifadas seemed to have a tough time staying on the side of the white tranny.
When the white thing threw a punch at the black journalist the black antifas stood by and watched as the tranny got the stuffing beat out of it’s bra.
Literally.
So, this latest bit of drama appears to be astro-turfed and paid protesters. Just like before the election.
They have no loyalty in them.
Just there for the paycheck.
obama is gay but who killed his gay lover in Chicago? the slut hilary is a lesbian so when you add the two now the alleged sexual orientation of the country becomes valid by the left. if one goes on criaigslist, protesters jobs are available.