As homosexual activists gathered in major cities across America for their “gay pride” parades June 11, it was clear that the annual homosexual spectacle had morphed into a massive, nationwide anti-Trump rally. NPR.org noted that at more than 50 homosexual marches in cities across the nation, “LGBT people and their allies gathered to stand in solidarity against the Trump administration.”
The Los Angeles Times reported that its nearly 50-year-old “LGTBQ” pageant was replaced this year “with what can best be described as a symbol of the Trump era — a protest march, complete with a hashtag in its name: the #ResistMarch.”
Brian Pendleton, one of the organizers of the Trump protest march, told the Times that “this year, the LGBTQ community is lending our iconic rainbow flag to anyone who feels like their rights are under threat and to anyone who feels like America’s strength is its diversity. The political climate we find ourselves in has driven us to galvanize and unite.”
The LA parade was replete with the requisite Trump-bashing signs, along with the t-shirt of choice sporting the slogan, “Make America Gay Again” — a perverse play on Trump’s patriotic campaign tagline. And throughout the parade could be heard such rants as: “We’re here, we’re queer, get that Cheeto out of here” — a juvenile jab at Trump’s hair color and onetime spray-on tan.
And in Charlotte, North Carolina, “gay pride” organizers refused to allow a pair of homosexuals to participate in their parade because they identified themselves as Trump supporters. Brian Talbert told local Charlotte news sources that he and another man, part of a group calling themselves “Gays for Trump,” had applied to enter a float in Charlotte’s “Pride Parade,” but were promptly rejected.
“We wanted to show that we weren’t the racist, bigot, misogynist whatevers,” Talbert said. “We wanted to show that we are Americans, love our country and our president. We wanted to be there to celebrate gay pride.”
A spokesman for “Charlotte Pride” insisted that the group had the right to turn away groups that “do not reflect the mission, vision, and values of our organization.”
Ironically, while President Trump has not actively pandered to the “gay” lobby as did his White House predecessor, thoughtful “gay” observers have noted that the president is, in fact, generally favorably disposed toward keeping homosexual “rights” on track.
For example, writing in May on DailyCaller.com, columnist David Benkof noted that Trump’s highly anticipated May 4 religious liberty executive order, “despite serious pressure from the president’s Evangelical allies … contained no license to discriminate against gays.”
As proof that he is antagonistic to their agenda, the leftist homosexual lobby points out that Trump has not actively supported same-sex “marriage,” and has an Evangelical Christian vice president, along with a number cabinet members who identify as conservative and Christian.
But Benkof noted that Trump actually campaigned as a friend of “gays,” and has followed through on a number of levels. “As president, Trump has kept Obama’s rules barring companies doing federal work from discriminating against LGBT people,” Benkof wrote. “He retained Randy Berry, a diplomat whose mission is to protect gay people from persecution abroad.” He added that Berry’s work “is particularly urgent in light of the lethal assault on the gay community of Chechnya — which Trump’s UN Ambassador Nikki Haley has vocally condemned.”
Additionally, wrote Benkof, under the Trump administration “HIV/AIDS programs have been spared the large cuts to the health budget; and Trump’s controversial executive order on refugees specifically stated that the United States should not admit those who would oppress Americans ‘of any sexual orientation.’”
In reality, Trump’s tolerance of homosexual causes goes back at least three decades. Writing at TheHill.com, columnist Joseph Murray recalled: “In the 1980s & 1990s Trump donated heavily to charities that focused on the AIDS outbreak. When he floated a third party presidential run in 1999 he went on record saying he would consider adding sexual orientation to the Civil Rights Act. Trump is also believed to be the first private club owner in Palm Beach — in this case Mar-a-Lago — to admit a gay couple. This is not the resume of an LGBT foe.”
Nonetheless, homosexual activists have become one of the loudest collective voices in the anti-Trump mob, and this year turned their “gay pride” parades into full-blown resistance events. That has created a disconnect for “gay” individuals who are also Trump supporters.
One such supporter, Gina Roberts, identified by NPR.com as a “transgender woman” from Los Angeles who served as a delegate at the 2016 Republican convention, said that “there’s no way in heck that I would attend LA pride because it’s a Resist march. Instead of celebrating diversity, it’s the opposite of what Pride stands for.”
Ironically, pro-Trump homosexuals have found that in order to be accepted in the “gay” community, they must stay “in the closet” as supporters of the president. “Generally” said Vincent Foster of Miami, Florida’s Log Cabin Republicans, “in 2017, it’s a lot easier to be openly gay than to be openly Republican.”
Photo of Los Angeles LGBTQ #ResistMarch, June 11, 2017: AP Images
