Religious right leaders have been quick to embrace Donald Trump, despite his violation of every moral principle they purport to love. Now Trump has returned the favor. In a speech today at the Values Voter Summit , a jamboree for the religious right, Trump made it clear that he will give antigay evangelicals carte blanche if he’s elected president.
Trump started at a low point and went down from there. Trump began by expressing his appreciation for one of the right’s premier homophobes, Tony Perkins. “I wanted to thank our host, Tony Perkins, for his years of leadership,” Trump cooed about the head of the Family Research Council, a hate group. As if that wasn’t enough, Trump also did a shout out to another homophobe (and fellow Putin lover) Franklin Graham.
Then Trump promised the religious right basically anything it wanted, in his signature syntax. “A Trump administration, our Christian heritage will be cherished, protected, defended, like you’ve never seen before,” he told the cheering crowd. “Believe me. I believe it. And you believe it. And you know it. You know it.”
That includes some important sops to the religious right. One is the appointment of judges who will uphold antigay bigotry under the guise of religious liberty.
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“I have pledged to appoint judges who uphold the Constitution, to protect your religious liberty, and apply the law as written,” Trump said. “We reject judges who rewrite the Constitution to impose their own person views on 300 million-plus Americans.”
The other issue that will cheer antigay forces is Trump’s pledge to allow religious institutions to get involved in politics without losing their tax-exempt status. That’s a policy that is rarely enforced (obviously, given his audience), but that could have an outsized impact on local ballot initiatives.
Of course, the thudding irony is that Trump’s familiarity with matters of faith is about as deep as his foreign policy expertise. But that didn’t matter to his audience, who enthusiastically embraced his muddled ideas.
Just as a reminder of the contrast between the two parties: tomorrow Tim Kaine will be speaking at the Human Rights Campaign’s national dinner.
In July , Donald Trump promised to protect the LGBTQ community from “the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideologies.” Maybe. But he clearly won’t do anything to protect us from hateful domestic ones.
Alistair Wiseman
All that HATE!!!
(Um, where is it?)
But hey, it’s an election year and Queerty is doing what socially progressive liberal Democrats resort to.
Keep them on the groupthink plantation.
1EqualityUSA
Spitting in the wind again, Alistair? How much do they pay you? Get the government out of religion. The tax breaks have got to go. Any religious organization involved in politics should lose their tax exempt status immediately.
Mo Bro
That’s odd, I didn’t see anything in this article about Trump “turning the religious right loose” on us, but the statement, “Trump’s familiarity with matters of faith is about as deep as his foreign policy expertise,” is so richly ironic because that’s exactly how those of us with level heads felt about Obama 8 years ago—but were assured by progressives that experience was irrelevant because it was all about “hope and change.”
Kieran
Donald Trump : “Our greatest compassion must be for our American citizens.”
Donald Trump: ‘There is only one core issue in the debate over illegal immigration: The well-being of the American people.’
Whoever thought we’d live to see the day an American politician would be saying hateful things like this? Trump MUST be STOPPED!!
aequalitasTN
@Alistair Wiseman: Perhaps if you dug a little deeper, you woukd find it. He pledges to appoint judges that only the religiius right approves in his statement. Have you read his list? Do you know who is at the top of it for the SCOTUS? William Pryor; there’s the hate, with him and the judges like him on thay list. If you cannot see that, you are blind.
I will vote for the candidate that recognizes my right to exist and live my life free from the religious oppression the right wing nut jobs havr promised. History does not lie, when religion rules — any relgion — people who do not conform to their ideals suffer.
Alistair Wiseman
@Kieran:
That is jingoism by todays Democratic progressives. They much prefer Hillary’s “moral clarity” when she tweeted the following last November:
“Let’s be clear: Islam is not our adversary. Muslims are peaceful and tolerant people and have nothing whatsoever to do with terrorism.”
Alistair Wiseman
@aequalitasTN:
Said the religious bigot.
Ander
I guess it’s easier to lazily toss around phrases like “liberal progressives” than to actually address the substance of the article and the extreme homophobia of the GOP platform.
GayEGO
@Alistair Wiseman: Right on! Hillary speaks clearly and supports Ameicans including LGBTs. Those who don’t get Hillary have been brainwashed by Trumpa Dumpa, the worst nominee in history.
GayEGO
@Mo Bro: Trump picked Mike Pence as vice president, that makes it obvious that he is pushing the anti-LGBT religious nuts on us. Trump wants to overturn the SCOTUS ruling for Marriage Equality.
Ander
@GayEGO: At this point it’s more difficult to tell if trump has his nose further up the ass of the evangelicals, or vice versa. In the end, guess it’s just a big circle jerk.
Mo Bro
@GayEGO: When, specifically, did Trump state he “wants to overturn the SCOTUS ruling for Marriage Equality”? Oh, that’s right—he didn’t, it’s just more lefty propaganda to try to influence the simple-minded. Nice try, but . . . fail.
e.c.
@Mo Bro: Ummm, try this.
“Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said Sunday that, if he becomes president, he would “strongly consider” appointing Supreme Court judges who would overturn the court’s decision to legalize same-sex marriage. “It has been ruled upon,” Trump said on Fox News Sunday. “If I’m elected I would be very strong in putting certain judges on the bench that maybe could change things.”
When asked by host Chris Wallace whether that meant trying to appoint justices to overturn the ruling, Trump said he would “strongly consider that, yes.”
So yes, Trump is on record suggesting he’d attempt to reverse the course on marriage equality.
Kangol
@1EqualityUSA: Alistair and his ilk are absolutely swooning over the psychopathic wannabe strongman. Trump can call everyone he hates every foul name in the book, trashing foreign countries, entire religions, you name it. He can lie through his teeth endlessly. He can consort with white supremacists and neo-N@zis. Yet let Hillary Clinton call the people supporting him a “basket of deplorables,” and they get so P.C. they can’t stop whining and crying! The man has said he wants to put extremely anti-gay nuts like Scalia on the Court, and the Vichy gays like Alistair are defending him. They’re like that pathetic Kenny Mehlman, who promoted anti-gay laws, or that nutcase former Reagan official who went after gays yet is now marrying another woman. They parasitically feed off the activism of people on the left, benefiting from all the advances, while doing everything they can to support the people who hate us. Beyond pathetic.
aequalitasTN
@Alistair Wiseman: I’m fine with peoples’ faith(s), until they try to rule the country with it and legislate it onto everyone, like by banning interracial marriage, passing Jim Crow laws, banning consensual sex between adults of the same sex, and banning same sex marriage. Now, the latest example is trying to deny services to LGBT individuals based on their faith, even though they hold government jobs.
History does not lie. If preventing relgious tenants from being legislated and judiciously upheld on the country means the religious should not come back to power because they want and have pledged to do such, then so be it. Additionally, if that makes me a “religious bigot,” so be it.
1EqualityUSA
Kangol, Love it!
dwes09
@Alistair Wiseman: “All that HATE!!!
(Um, where is it?)
But hey, it’s an election year and Queerty is doing what socially progressive liberal Democrats resort to.
Keep them on the groupthink plantation.
The hate is in the words and actions of the people Trump sucks up to for votes. People who have stated unequivocally that they think we are all, sick perverts who are going to hell and deserve a taste of that hell in this life. Are you so deluded that you do not know what Tony Perkins thinks of all of us (including you if you are not lying about being gay, though as a republican shill I believe more and more that you are).
As always, socially liberal democrats resort to stating facts, and relating actual events; the opposite of what you do in this amusing post (in fact in most of your amusing posts). As for the “groupthink plantation, what ever you mean by that is obscure, but what it means to most who hear the term is the place where gay republicans can be found, gleefully thinking they are fated to be “house slaves”, while the rest of us toil in the fields.
You really need to read the republican platform, read the actual constitution and read the quotes of your master Trump.
dwes09
@Alistair Wiseman: “Said the religious bigot.”
If you think understanding the history of theocracies and the nature of the separation of church and state makes someone a “religious bigot”, you need to move to another country. Clearly a secular democratic republic is not for you.
Who knows, perhaps you like the idea of many millions of dollars being spent on attempts to overturn marriage equality, perhaps you like the idea of “christian religious law”. One may assume (from your political stance) you loved the idea of millions being wasted on attempts to pin various conspiracy theories on both Clintons, despite it being taxpayer money thrown down the toilet by the right.
dwes09
@Mo Bro: ” When, specifically, did Trump state he “wants to overturn the SCOTUS ruling for Marriage Equality”? Oh, that’s right—he didn’t”
Actually he did, on more than one occasion. Just as he said Evangelicals will thrive under his rule as never before. The internet is your friend. Learn how to use it rather than relying on your imagination for news and analysis.
Mo Bro
@dwes09:
@e.c.:
Again, he never stated he wants to appoint judges who’ll reverse marriage equality. You can read into his actions all you want, but I rely on facts, not assumptions.
gayhope1990
@abnerbbha:Shut up just shut up./The lgbt pro Trump are just a bunch of self-hatred rednecks,white trashes.Look for the records of your dear Trump.He used to be Democrat,independent.He’s a fraud and a hypocritical liar.
1EqualityUSA
abnerbha, Let’s just agree to disagree. Have a nice life.
Tobi
@abnerbha: I think it’s time you returned to your own planet.
zipperzone
As a Canadian, who can’t vote in the U.S. election, I often wonder why I get so upset with the possibly of Trump being your next President. If it happens, it will not direct me personally. I don’t have to fear that marriage equality might be overturned, that a Supreme Court will pass laws that will allow discrimination of homosexuals or that the Religious Reich will be able to exert its influence over how I conduct my life.
That said – THE PROSPECT SCARES THE SHIT OUT OF ME
Because I am wrong. It WILL affect me. It will affect every living person on this planet, and not in a good way. It certainly will change the American way of life and their position in the world. Why do you think Putin is so anxious to see this idiot in the White House? It could cause a war to end all wars and the even cause the end of civilization.
Please assure me that you don’t want to be complicit in that.