FROM THE EDITOR.
The car-crash spectacle of Tiffany Trump talking up her dad’s gay cred… we’ll never see the likes of it again!
Poor Tiffany. They don’t let her out much and when they do, they send her on a fool’s errand. There she was, bouncing around the stage at something called “Trump Pride”, all bubbly and giggly, slightly overwhelmed at the chance to speak in public.
Her one job was to make the case that her dad, President Donald Trump, was a proLGBTQIA+ president and the best friend we could have in the White House.
“My father has always supported all of you,” gushed Tiffany. “Prior to politics, he supported the LGBQIIA+… I’m here speaking to you… I wouldn’t lie.”
And there it was, another reason for Donald to be disappointed in the daughter who isn’t Ivanka.
No doubt Tiff had been well briefed: “Listen, you’ll have to leave the T out of the LGBTQIA+ because your dad banned them from the military. Plus, he’s kinda in favour of businesses and institutions being allowed to legally discriminate against them, so just drop the T. No-one will notice.”
It was noticed.
Tiffany didn’t get to shine alone. There was another speaker: Richard Grenell, a career public servant, gay man, Trump supporter, and the US ambassador to Germany between 2018-20. Why did he only last two years in this prestigious posting, you ask? A lack of diplomatic skill, unprofessionalism and hanging out with far-right extremists, according to many news sources.
Grenell was also there to spruik Donald Trump’s gay-lovin’ ways.
“Republicans are better on gay rights than Democrats – and they hate it,” he asserted. There were cheers from the Trump Pride crowd. (I say “crowd” but it didn’t sound like the room was very full and there were no shots of the audience in the video so I’m using the word “crowd” loosely.)
“I say, Mr President, the gays love you,” again, more cheers.
And then Richard dropped this clanger: “Remember, it is the Republican Party that has delivered marriage equality.” Say what? Even the Trump Pride “crowd” didn’t buy that one.
Let’s just remind ourselves, marriage equality in the USA was delivered by the US Supreme Court’s ruling in the Obergefell v Hodges case and arrived during the ObamaBiden administration. It was the Republicans who came up with DOMA, the Defence Of Marriage Act, which hoped to preserve marriage as being solely between a man and a woman.
If you are one of the few LGBTQIA+ people who still think Trump was a champion of our cause, note that he has not supported the Equality Act, “a bill to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity in employment, housing, credit, education and jury service.”
Why wouldn’t an allegedly pro-gay president support that? Because religious evangelists, who vote for Trump en masse, believe “it poses devastating and unprecedented threats to religious freedom,” according to The Alliance Defending Freedom.
If you want an exhaustive list of anti-gay Trump initiatives there’s the TAP (Trump Accountability Project) at www.glaad.org/tap/ donald-trump
The newly elected Biden-Harris leadership team have pledged to pass the Equality Act during their first 100 days in office. This would protect gays, lesbians, bisexuals, queer and intersex people, our allies and, yes, trans people from everyday oppression. It would mean that LGBTQIA+ people in the USA could live, work, marry, operate businesses, study and raise families like every other American. It is not too much to ask. It’s simple human rights, and time the US accorded it to its citizens.
As we go to press, Trump is still claiming that the election was rigged and that he won. He has raked in over $207 million in donations from supporters who believe he needs the money to fund his legal challenges to the election outcome which have, so far, all failed because there is no evidence of significant electoral fraud that would change the outcome of the election. He’s golfing as Americans are dying of COVID-19 at a rate of one every 30 seconds (according to The Sydney Morning Herald). Even Republicans have disavowed him.
In this issue, we celebrate the victory of progressive, inclusive politics over the divisive, hateful rhetoric of the last four years. Regular DNA readers will be aware that over the last couple of years we have created two USAthemed issues. We wanted to remind the world and our US readers that the USA is bigger than Trump. We have accentuated the positives and celebrated the reasons the US still holds a special place in our hearts.
President-elect Joe Biden has declared, “America is back.” Cher has tweeted, “IS PART OF THE AGAIN .” Either way, it’s a brand new day for the USA.
We wanted to remind the world and our US readers that the USA is bigger than Trump.