Donald Trump surprises the LGBT community

[Calllaris]

Ever since President-Elect Donald Trump made his acceptance speech, reality dawned on the LGBT community. Fear gripped everyone of us, world over. I know many LGBT Nigerians who literally gave up hope. I for one was worried but I was hopeful knowing "even the devil cannot stop a good work".

 

The fear was rightly based upon the imminent plan Trump had voiced during his campaign about the overturn of the marriage equality rule, the executive orders and many other 'protection' Obama's government had granted the LGBT community.

 

During the Presidential debates, Trump confirmed that he would appoint Supreme Court justices in the mould of the late conservative Antonin Scalia, who opposed the decriminalisation of sodomy and penned a blistering dissent against the equal marriage ruling. At the presidential primary also, he said gay marriage should have been decided by the states, and said he would consider appointing judges to overrule the Supreme Court’s marriage decisions.

 

“I would strongly consider that, yes,” he said in a January Fox News interview.

 

 

A public shortlist of Supreme Court candidates released by Mr. Trump features only anti-LGBT conservatives.

 

Meanwhile, his running mate Mike Pence openly confirmed a plan to dismantle Barack Obama’s protections for LGBT people, as part of an ‘immediate’ review of executive orders issued by President Obama.

 

President-elect Trump then pledged to sign the Republican-backed First Amendment Defence Act, a law that would permit forms of anti-LGBT discrimination on the grounds of religion. Mr. Trump confirmed he would not veto the law, which bans the government from taking any “action against a person on the basis that such person believes or acts in accordance with a religious belief or moral conviction that marriage is or should be recognised as the union of one man and one woman”.

 

The broadly-written law would part-legalise religious discrimination against LGBT people in all sectors, from employment to retail to healthcare, banning the government from intervening.

 

In passing FADA, Trump and Pence would be required to repeal Barack Obama’s 2014 executive order that extended LGBT anti-discrimination protections to federal contractors.

 

Mike Pence further confirmed this intention, pledging to pare back President Obama’s orders on LGBT rights so that “the transgender bathroom issue can be resolved with common sense at the local level”.

 

So you would really understand ALL our fears when he won the election.

 

Sequel to all these, Anti-LGBT activists began to set out their plan to roll back equality. The National Organisation for Marriage only 10 days ago openly set out its strategy for rolling back LGBT rights under the Trump administration. NOM's head Brian Brown read out a plan attacking LGBT right

 

“Here is our plan:

 

*We will work with President Trump to nominate conservative justices to the U.S. Supreme Court, individuals who will adhere to the words and meaning of the constitution. Such justices will inevitably reverse the anti-constitutional ruling of the Supreme Court imposing same-sex ‘marriage’ on the nation in the Obergefell decision, because that decision lacked any basis in the constitution.

 

*We will work with President Trump to rescind the illegal, over-reaching executive orders and directives issued by President Obama, including his dangerous ‘gender identity’ directives, attempting to redefine gender just as he sought to redefine marriage.

 

*We will work with President Trump to reverse policies of the Obama administration that seek to coerce other countries into accepting same-sex ‘marriage’ as a condition of receiving US assistance and aid. It is fundamentally wrong for a president to become a lobbyist for the LGBT agenda, and we are confident that will end in the Trump administration.

 

*We will work with President Trump and Congress to pass the First Amendment Defense Act (FADA), which Mr. Trump supports. FADA is critical legislation to protect people who believe in marriage from being targeted by the government for persecution..."

 

You may ask, how easy will all this be?

 

When Trump takes office in January, the GOP will be in full control of both the executive and the legislature for the first time since 2005.

 

The shift means little chance for the Democrats to scupper Republican attacks on LGBT rights, with Obama previously using executive powers to defend equality from advances in Congress – something Trump has pledged not to do

 

So, many of these anti LGBT objectives may be achievable under President Trump, given his own pledges on the issue.

 

 

But... (yes you knew there is a but)

 

Two days ago in his first interview since winning the election, Trump at CBS studio surprised the whole world when he said the LGBT law is "settled" law

 

President- Elect Donald Trump said he’s “fine” with same-sex marriage as the law of the land, calling the issue “settled” by the Supreme Court.

 

The comments – in Trump’s first television interview since winning the presidency – sharply contrast with his party’s orthodoxy, his running mate’s longtime position and comments he made during the Republican primaries.

 

“It’s law,” he said in the interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” that aired Sunday. “It was settled in the Supreme Court. I mean it’s done.”

 

“These cases have gone to the Supreme Court. They’ve been settled. And I’m – I’m fine with that,” he added.

 

In the same interview, when asked if he would appoint a Supreme Court justice who wants to overturn Roe v. Wade, Trump said his judges will be “pro-life,” and suggested that decision could be overturned.

 

“If it ever were overturned, it would go back to the states,” Trump said. Women seeking abortions would have to “go to another state” for the procedure.

 

It is worth remembering the Republican Party’s official platform, ratified by the party in July, strongly opposes same-sex marriage, condemns the Supreme Court’s rulings in Obergefell v. Hodges and United States v. Windsor, and supports proposed “religious freedom” legislation that critics say would allow businesses to deny services to gay people.

 

Trump’s most recent comments about gay marriage break with the longtime position of his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, who signed a religious freedom bill into law in 2015, but walked back on some of its 'strong' language after facing backlash from across the country.

 

 

So, was all we heard earlier campaign bombast, not policy? - Hope around the corner?

 

Following his most recent comments, theres been various reactions amongst many within and without the community. Reactions ranging from surprise to hope to uncertainty. Some in our home community has called him "a 'somewhat' pragmatist, who is temperamentally and intellectually unfit to be POTUS", a "mean business guy" who plays to win, (a trait I believe is worth emulating anyway), an "inspiration to be sneaky and steadfast in your hustles" ?, and "just a cut-throat bitch who steps on a few toes to get to the top before coming back to sing along"

 

President Trump' will surprise the world, that’s my fact.

And I pray he continues to surprise us with these positive plot twists that seem to not harm anyone. Afterall Equality is a right that we all deserve.

 

Beginning to like this Trump?