Trump's Log Cabin fort
In which he hides from all his discriminatory actions.
Thanks so much to my buddy Bryan Safi for promoting Fording the River Styx today! If you aren’t listening to Throwing Shade you’re missing out on one of the best podcasts for queer and women’s issues! Welcome everyone who found the newsletter that way!
Onto today’s LGBTQ news!
Trump hides behind Log Cabin endorsement
I wouldn’t blame you if you thought folks were overreacting a bit to the Log Cabin Republicans (LCR) endorsing Trump last week. But Trump himself just proved why it was so problematic.
During today’s press availability, the Washington Blade’s Chris Johnson finally got a chance to ask a question — something that happens very rarely despite the fact he’s a regular part of the White House press pool. He asked about Trump’s efforts to roll back nondiscrimination protections and the president completely ignored him, boasting instead about the LCR endorsement and the support of Peter Thiel.
Trump didn’t even know when the endorsement happened. As always, Trump only cares about the people who like him, so if the queer Republicans like him, then queer people like him. It doesn’t matter than LCR has been hemorrhaging members who are quitting in protest. Trump can simply ignore any accountability for how he’s hurting the community.
In under 60 seconds, Trump proved that LCR’s endorsement directly worked against the interests of LGBTQ people. And as for LCR? As you’d expect, the group only cares about its ego:
USA Today platforming hate again
Just last week, USA Today let an anti-trans parent spew junk science. Today, it gave a hate group a chance to spew propaganda against the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).
Today’s op-ed was written by Jessica Prol Smith, who works for the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), having previously worked at the Family Research Council (FRC). The SPLC classifies both groups as anti-LGBTQ hate groups for the propaganda they spread and for their efforts to undermine civil rights.
Organizations like FRC and ADF never take any accountability for what the SPLC calls them out on, like their support for criminalizing homosexuality. Instead, they pretend they’re victims for having their “reasonable” beliefs about marriage and sexuality demonized. And for years now, they’ve tried to paint the SPLC as the bully.
I explained this campaign extensively two years ago, and literally everything I mentioned in that post applies to the junk Smith was allowed to write at USA Today. And she has the gall to invoke Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as her organization fights tooth and nail to allow discrimination against queer people.
Why is USA Today platforming hate against queer people? Mainstreaming such views has dangerous repercussions for our community, particularly young people, who can be severely traumatized by family rejection.
The real risks to LGBTQ adoptees
Among the things ADF is fighting for is to make sure religious adoption agencies can continue to receive state funding while discriminating against same-sex parents. They want to work only with parents who share their anti-LGBTQ values, which could have devastating impacts if the kids they’re fostering or adopting are themselves queer. An ex-evangelical adoptive mother describes her own experiences in a thoughtful essay at BuzzFeed. Check it out.
Gavin’s fight continues
Perhaps unsurprisingly after all these years, Gloucester County School District in Virginia has announced it’s going to appeal in Gavin Grimm’s case and continue to fight for the right to reject and segregate transgender students. He responded by saying what everybody was already thinking:
Muslim congresswomen defend LGBTQ Palestinians
Conservatives have been trying to rib Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN) this week after the Palestinian Authority instituted a crackdown on LGBTQ advocacy. But just for the record, both expressed their support for queer Palestinians:
Britain still distrusts LGBTQ refugees
Abderrahim El Habachi, a queer refugee from Morocco, sought asylum in the UK out of fear he’d be imprisoned for his sexuality at home. The system has not worked for people like him, however. “The Home Office is putting people through hell,” he said this week. “They don’t believe our sexual orientations or the struggles we are facing in our countries.”
Coach claims transgender student athlete is “unsafe”
It’s such a shame that when people don’t understand what it means to be transgender, their assumptions automatically paint trans folks as a threat. That’s what happened in Hawaii when a student athlete volleyball player came out as trans and started playing on the girls’ team. A rival coach, who hid behind anonymity, claimed it was “irresponsible” to let her play because it puts the other girls “in an unsafe situation.” Check out Dawn Ennis’ full report on the bigotry playing out in local news there.
Schadenfreude for veteran LGBTQ activists
The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) was once one of the most prominent orgs in the country, fighting on the front lines to keep marriage equality from becoming a reality. As you may know, they failed! But they’ve continued to exist, begging for money and pretending that opposing trans rights has something to do with marriage. But oops! They let their web domain expire, so now their website is gone.
Vegetables are bad for you
If all you’ve ever heard is one of Larry the Cucumber’s "Silly Songs,” you might not realize that the cartoon series VeggieTales is super Christian. Co-creator Phil Vischer was asked recently (by the anti-LGBTQ Christian Post) about that episode of Arthur in which the aardvark’s teacher enters a same-sex (and interspecies!) marriage.
Vischer said that he was disappointed the kids were all just okay with the marriage instead of questioning it. If he were ever pressured to show two men marrying, he’d refuse “because that’s not what I believe is best for kids.”
Imagine not believing that a loving family is good for kids.
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Until next time, stay platinum!
(VeggieTales photo credit: VeggieTales. That sure looks like two male reindeer enjoying each other’s company!)