My Two Cents: President-For-Now _____ Ignores Pride

Ah, June, what a month! So many great things happening and I wonder what our President-For-Now has to say them?

Oh, he’s issued a proclamation that June 2017 is National Homeownership Month! Anything else ... oh, he’s proclaimed June 2017 as National Ocean Month ... and African-American Music Appreciation Month ... and Great Outdoors Month!

So, I guess that takes care of June, though, I dunno why, but I have this queer feeling the Putz-in-Chief missed something; what oh what might that be?

Pride. One week down in the month of June and President-For-Now _____ has yet to acknowledge LGBT Pride Month. This from the candidate who swore, who promised, who vowed, who waved a Pride flag, and announced that he would be the most LGBT-friendly president ever!

But we’re getting bupkis. Zip. Zilch. Nada. And, in fact, not only—as of now—is the White House not acknowledging Pride Month, the White House has zero events planned to honor it ... or us.

President Bill Clinton was the first president to issue a Pride Month proclamation, though his predecessor, George W. Bush, who campaigned on the promise of No Marriage Equality EVER, didn’t keep with Clinton’s example.

But then along came Barack Obama.

President Obama not only embraced the tradition, but also set a new precedent for it by issuing a proclamation at the beginning of each Pride Month during his eight years in office. Not only that, but Obama also held an annual White House reception to celebrate the movers and shakers of the LGBTQ movement.

So are we surprised by _____’s stance? Well, yeah, kinda because he is also the first Republican to hold office following the Supreme Court’s decision to recognize marriage equality as the law of the land.

And Donald _____ has long boasted that he’s LGBTQ-friendly, though his record doesn’t show it; maybe that’s why he’s not saying anything about Pride.

See, President-For-Now _____ hasn’t taken a single pro-LGBTQ action in office but has, instead, withdrawn guidance protecting transgender and gender-nonconforming students, dropped out of several court cases related to LGBTQ rights, and appointed countless personnel with viciously anti-LGBTQ records.

In fact, one of the few times he mentioned us during his campaign, and since taking office, was when he was trying to convince us queers to embrace Islamophobia. But what about this year? I mean, we’re coming up on the one-year anniversary of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, a hate crime that targeted our community, and still he’s said nary a word about Pride.

And do not forget that, after the massacre, _____ stood atop and tried to paint himself as a pro-LGBT candidate, pandering to us, using the blood of our murdered brothers and sisters to garner votes.

_____’s silence on Pride Month is not only telling, it’s rather dangerous given that we've seen a rise in anti-LGBT bills in some twenty states; and the President says nothing.

Transgender people, particularly Trans woman of color, are being murdered daily in this country and still the President says nothing.

Suicide is the second leading cause of death among young people, and the rate of suicide attempts is four times greater for LGBT youth and he stays silent.

We.re here, _____; we’ve fought worse demons that you and we’re still here. We been ignored, fired, denied housing, beaten, bashed, murdered, denied equality and we’re still here. So, you can ignore us; you can stay silent about Pride month. But we’re here, and we aren’t going anywhere.

Oh, and Ivanka? Your little Tweet about how you want to honor and celebrate LGBT people was meaningless when you stand beside that bigot father of yours and smile for the cameras. At least he’s openly anti-LGBTQ; you’re far more dangerous because you say you support us but when it comes time to do something, to say something, you say nothing.

If the marriage equality win and the Pulse losses taught us anything, it’s that we cannot stay silent; we haven’t won yet. There are still battles ahead, both from this President-For-Now and from the anti-LGBTQ Republicans and legislatures around this country.

So, Happy Pride ... Celebrate ... Party ... Dance ... Laugh ... Get married ... but remember ... the march goes on ...