Trump-Pence relentless attacks on LGBTQ people

Trump’s “Joke” To Pence: No Joke

October 30, 2017 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

“When the conversation turned to gay rights, Trump motioned toward [Vice President Mike] Pence and joked, ‘Don’t ask that guy—he wants to hang them all!’’’

This was one of many damning revelations about Pence’s history, thinking and program in Jane Mayer’s extensive piece in the October 23 issue of the New Yorker, “The Danger of President Pence.”

First off, what kind of monster would want to hang gay people? Second, what kind of monster would think it was funny?

Mayer’s reporting makes clear that this “joke” was no joke. It spoke volumes about Pence’s actual attitude—his deep, bigoted hatred of LGBTQ people—lesbians, gays, bi-sexuals, transgenders and queers—and the actual posture of the whole Trump/Pence regime.

Pence is one of the most powerful figures in this regime and he’s been an adamant opponent LGBTQ rights and protections for decades. He has even opposed recognizing the estimated 10 million LGBTQ people in the U.S., as “a discrete and insular minority entitled to the protection of anti-discrimination laws.”

In 2015, as governor Pence signed a “Religious Freedom Restoration Act” which legalized religious bigotry and discrimination against LGBTQ people in particular. (A wave of national outrage forced Pence to sign a less overtly discriminatory version of the bill a few weeks later.)

“There have been other evangelical Christians in the White House, including Carter and George W. Bush,” Mayer writes, “but Pence’s fundamentalism exceeds theirs.” Under Trump, Pence hosts a weekly Bible study session for Cabinet officers led by a fundamentalist fanatic.

Pence is a Christian fascist whose views are rooted in Biblical literalism, which holds that any deviation from heterosexuality and traditional gender roles constitutes a sin against god (and in the Bible, punishable by death). And other Christian fascists occupy powerful positions throughout Trump’s government.

This may sound like lunacy, and it is, but it’s lunacy that’s deadly serious, has been legitimized by this system, and is now in power.

Assault After Assault, From Day One

The Trump/Pence regime’s actions, from day one, reflect this lunacy, and profound hatred of LGBTQ people. It has systematically dismantled protections and launched one assault after another against their basic rights and humanity.

The day Trump took office, his regime took down the Office of National AIDS Policy website and has never replaced it. Over the next seven months:

Trump struck down the ban on giving federal government contracts to companies that discriminate against women and LGBTQ workers.
Revoked federal guidelines that said transgender students should have the right to use public restrooms that match their gender identity.
Proposed a budget that cut funding for the Center for Disease Control’s HIV/AIDS prevention, testing and support programs by $186 million.
Proposed huge cuts to the National Institutes of Health, including $550 million cuts to HIV/AIDS research.
Proposed $800 million cuts from the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and U.S. Agency for International Development programs addressing the AIDS pandemic—meaning there will be more than 830,000 AIDS treatment interruptions leading to an estimated 130,000 more deaths at minimum.
Banned the recruiting of transgender people into the military

In Just the Last Two Months...

Trump’s Department of Justice (DOJ) sided with a baker who refused to make a wedding cake for two gay men.
Both Trump and Pence expressed support for Roy Moore, who won the runoff to become the Republican candidate for senator from Alabama. In 2005, Moore said “homosexual conduct should be illegal.” Trump said he “sounds like a really great guy.”
The DOJ rescinded a policy that protects transgender people from discrimination.
The DOJ argued in court against protections against discrimination against gay workers.
Christian fascist Betsy DeVos began her tenure as head of the Department of Education by rescinding protections for transgender students. In June she declared she wouldn’t work to stop discrimination against LGBTQ students. Now, she’s hired an attorney for the Department’s legal office who comes from a firm representing the Christian Educators Association International, an organization “virulently opposed to LGBT rights,” according to The American Prospect, and whose website accuses “public schools and the National Education Association (NEA) of promoting ‘the homosexual agenda.’”
In one of its most outrageous steps to impose religious rule, in early October, the DOJ issued a policy guidance statement giving broad license to discriminate against LGBTQ people and others in the name of protecting religious freedom. One of its provisions was that “Religious employers are entitled to employ only persons whose beliefs and conduct are consistent with the employers’ religious precepts.”

“The guidance is meant to ‘protect’ the anti-LGBTQ child welfare worker who is opposed to placing young people in foster care with a lesbian couple. It is meant to ‘protect’ the transphobic shelter worker who refuses to give a transgender person a place to sleep for the night,” said Rea Carey, the executive director, National LGBTQ Task Force

“The Department of Justice has declared open season on transgender and other LGBTQ people,” the National Center for Transgender Equality stated.

***

Mike Pence may not intend to hang gay people at the moment, but the logic of his Christian fascist outlook and program, and the Trump/Pence assaults could lead to genocidal atrocities against LGBTQ people.

Just this month, Georgia lawmaker Betty Price, wife of former Trump cabinet member Tom Price, asked if people with HIV should be quarantined. She tried to dismiss it as a “provocative and rhetorical comment,” but such “provocative” and “rhetorical” comments are how genocidal ideas gain legitimacy, with potentially horrendous consequences as history has repeatedly shown!

November 4: It Begins...

This Nightmare Must End: The Trump/Pence Regime Must Go!
In the Name of Humanity, We REFUSE to Accept a Fascist America!

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