Christian extremists and at least one Republican member of Congress are not pleased that Donald Trump won’t be stripping away all LGBTQ rights in America with the stroke of his pen, BuzzFeed News reports.
Yesterday, Trump said he will uphold an executive order signed by Obama in 2014 which protects employees from anti-LGBTQ workplace discrimination while working for federal contractors… for now. Who knows how he’ll feel about it in another five minutes?
Related: White House: Worker protections will stay, doesn’t rule out religious exemptions
Now, in a statement to BuzzFeed News, “religious freedom” fighter Rep. Steve Russell of Oklahoma said, “I cannot understand why the President would prevent people of faith to continue to contract with the military.”
Ryan Anderson of the antigay Heritage Foundation agreed, saying Trump had “made a mistake” by honoring the nondiscrimination order, particularly because it makes trans people a “protected class,” which he believes is against God’s will.
“Many organizations, including faith-based groups, have beliefs about human embodiment that people are male and female — and that females and males are made for each other — and that the federal government shouldn’t penalize those groups when they operate according to their convictions,” he said.
Related: Trump Just Came Down Hard On The Side Of “Religious Liberty,” AKA Homophobia
And then there’s good ol’ Mat Staver of Liberty Council, better known as Kim Davis’ lawyer. He, too, isn’t happy that Trump is keeping “Obama’s bad executive order.”
“The fluid and subjective term ‘gender identity’ does not prevent discrimination in the workplace but rather injects in the workplace an agenda that is harmful to businesses and to other employees,” Staver said in a statement released Tuesday, adding that the “absurd” order’s protections “opens women’s restrooms to men” and force “businesses to be at the mercy of a person’s subjective and changing thoughts.”
Apparently, Starver would prefer to force all American citizens to be at the mercy of his own personal subjective and changing thoughts.
h/t: BuzzFeed
DCguy
He doesn’t need to. Congress has already introduced the bill that will allow employers to fire lgbt people if they want to because of their religion. This bill will supercede the Agency policies. Trump knows he doesn’t need to do anything because those protections will be wiped out be Congress in a bill he will not veto.
But let me guess, those anti-lgbt Log Cabiners will come on here screaming about how good Trump is for LGBTs. They’ll talk about how he admitted lgbts exist so isn’t that great?!?
KaiserVonScheiss
You’re just angry that Trump did something that doesn’t fit your narrative.
FnameLname
No, Trump has surrounded himself with people who will challenge us every minute of the day for the next 4 years. Like everything he does and says you have to read between the lines. He held up a rainbow flag and patted himself of the back for being the first GOP nominee to include the LGBTQ community in his nomination speech. He said he will protect the community from religious extremists….however, he meant ISIS, not Christian extremists. He was referring to Orlando which makes no sense as Omar Mateen claimed loyalty to several groups during his 911 call….several of which are enemies so that could not have been true. Omar was a homophobe who could not come to terms with his own feelings — Trump will use us as pawns as long as we allow him to. He can conveniently state that members of his cabinet or individual states are to blame for what is to come and then pat himself of the back for not getting blood on his hands. Watch interviews of him talking about LGBTQ rights for the last 20 years… he is not a supporter and only lied during his nomination to get votes from people like the log cabin repubs.
StacysMusings
Forget Trump… I’m more worried about Pence…
Mo Bro
Whoa whoa whoa, I’ve been reading on this very site for months about how Donald Trump is going to take away gay marriage and then round us all up and put us in homo camps and cages before personally executing all of us with a skull-painted flamethrower while dressed in a Klan robe and cackling hysterically about how much he hates the queers and the Messicans.
Not so much anymore?
Glad to see facts finally won out over hyperbole . . . for however briefly it may be.
Kangol
No one said he was going “put us in homo camps and cages before personally executing all of us with a skull-painted flamethrower while dressed in a Klan robe and cackling hysterically about how much he hates the queers and the Messicans.” That’s your fantasy. But when religious fanatics get to discriminate against you, if you are an out gay person, as Trump stands by or abets their behavior, let’s hear your tune then.
Record Man
Fact: Trump said he would appoint conservative judges to the Supreme Court who would overturn the “shocking ruling” on marriage equality.
This was said last year, when he sought and received the support of several extremist evangelicals during his campaign for the Republican nomination. This is easily verified.
Trump never said anything about rounding us up and putting us into camps, but many of those same pastors would like to do exactly that. Most of Trump’s cabinet picks are sworn enemies of the LGBT community, starting with Mike Pence. Make no mistake; these people mean us harm.
dwes09
Stupid and delusional racist straight white man that you are, you take joy in making up lies about what gay progressives said. But that’s OK, you are a source of great amusement in your idiocy.
And when Trump unveils his “religious freedom” legislation tomorrow, the damage will be done. And you, as a troll and hater of LGBT people will stain your adult diapers with glee.
BigWill
How’s it going with the ladies you were going back to, studly?
Mo Bro
@Kangol:
I’m already religiously persecuted—the Muzzies want me dead. Oh, and you, too. Remember Orlando? Got a snarky comment for that one? I suspect you do, but it will completely avoid the fact that Islam wants to kill us and will center instead on how evil Christianity is.
@dwes09:
Now that your picture has made me aware that you’re very old, I can now understand where your mindless rantings come from. I have a great-grandfather, so I’m sympathetic to your plight. Get well soon.
GayEGO
What a mess! We LGBTs need to be ready to sue our government for these hateful, discriminatory actions which violate our constitution. Most of the time, the state governments have caved when lhey lost lawsuits and businesses that threatened to boycott them, causing them to lose money.
eightinchnail
ISIS and US evangelicals. Can’t see any difference.
StacysMusings
I agree that we in the U.S. have a serious issue in the years ahead. Christians have been at war with us in the LGBT+ community for a long time, and it looks like they might succeed in putting severe restrictions on our freedoms. I have to admit, as a transgender woman myself, I am terrified.
But please do not confuse Christians with real Christianity. Do not confuse the God that ‘hates fags’ with the real God of the Bible. There are LGBT+ Christians out there (I am one of them), and I assure you, the rampant homophobia coming from the religious right is neither right nor biblical.