President Donald Trump became the first president to speak at the Values Voters Summit hosted by the Family Research Council (FRC) on Oct. 13. Classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, the far-right FRC homophobic.
During the gathering, he talked about the “religious freedom” guidance that was issued by Attorney General Jeff Sessions which gives federal employees and contractors a wide berth to claim religious objections to any of their duties. This would allow them to publicly discriminate against LGBTQ+ people and other people who might religiously offend them.
Last week, a New Yorker article by Jane Mayer entered the spotlight when it mentioned that Donald Trump joked about Vice President Mike Pence wanting to hang gay people. In the article, Mayer talks about how Trump belittles Pence’s religiosity. In a conversation between Trump and a staff member from his campaign, the president allegedly said, “Don’t ask that guy, he wants to hang them all” when the subject changed to gay rights.
The joke was taken more as an affirmation of the fears in the queer community. Even if it isn’t true, LGBTQ+ people have many reasons to still be afraid of Trump and his administration. Pence has been known for his record in opposition to gay rights from stating gay couples signaled "societal collapse" in a 2006 address in the Republican Study Committee to rejecting the Barack Obama-era directive to school systems stating they must allow students to use the bathroom for the gender they identify with.
When Trump was inaugurated, the White House's specific sections on climate change, health care, civil rights and LGBTQ+ issues and climate change were removed from the website as of Jan. 23, 2017. While many believed that this was a temporary change to the website, there is still no section for LGBTQ+ issues present.
A month into his presidency, the Trump administration also announced its plan to rescind the federal guidance to school systems on transgender students passed by Obama’s administration on Feb. 23, 2017, removing bathroom protections for transgender students that allowed them to use bathrooms corresponding with their gender identities.
Trump also said in a series of tweets on July 26, 2017 that transgender people will no longer be able to serve in the military. Transgender people were welcomed to join the military under the Obama administration. Trump’s decision was seen as a direct attack on the community.
On May 11, 2017, nearly 50 members of the House of Representatives requested for the Department of Health and Health Services “restore questions allowing responders to identify as gay, lesbian or bisexual to a federal survey for elders,” according to the Washington Blade. This would be a symbolic push for LGBTQ+ visibility, even if the Trump administration doesn’t seem interested in their representation.
In March 2017, copies of the 2020 Census Bureau questionnaire was leaked, and included questions about sexual orientation and gender identity. It was then noticed that the questions surrounding the queer community were removed, sparking controversy to many members of the community. The Census Bureau stated those questions were there “inadvertently” meaning that the inclusion of LGBTQ+ people was basically a mistake.
Not including the queer community in federal surveys is more dangerous than people think. It leads to erasure of populations, in the sense that they could no longer be counted as people in federal categories. While yes, they are counted according to our races and sexes, they need more inclusion than that.
Making sure that LGBTQ+ people are included in federal surveys is more important than ever. Collecting data on marginalized populations helps the government understand the challenges and forms of discrimination LGBTQ+ people face and tells agencies where to allocate funding. It can help shape public policy.
During his campaign, Trump stated he would be an advocate for LGBTQ+ people. After the deaths of 49 people in the 2016 shooting in Pulse, a gay club in Orlando, Florida, Trump said he would “do everything in (his) power to protect our LGBT citizens from the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology.”
Ten months into his presidency, Trump hasn't done anything to support those claims. In a poll shared with Time magazine, roughly 67 percent of LGBTQ+ people feel less safe under Trump’s presidency because of their sexual orientations and/or gender identities.
Personally, I have been scared for myself and what could happen under this administration as time goes on. It felt like a complete stab in the back when my parents told me they voted for Trump, and then continued to support his actions even though they were against the community I am a part of.
While we currently have more rights than ever, the LGBTQ+ community still has a long way to go before we could ever think of ourselves as “equal.” It feels like the country is moving backwards in time, and the actions against the queer community in the last 10 months only prove that. All that has happened in less than a year raises this question: what could the next three years hold?
A protester shows off a sign in an anti-Trump, LGBTQ+ rally outside of Stonewall Inn on Feb. 4.
Protesters fight against Trump's reversal of the bathroom law that allowed transgender students to use the bathroom of their choice.
An activist carries the transgender flag while attending a protest held in San Francisco in response to a tweet sent out by Trump regarding the ban of transgender people in the military.
Donald Trump holds a rainbow flag given to him by a supporter during a campaign rally at the University of Northern Colorado.
