_____'s Gay Hating Gay Boasting Hypocrisy

It seems like it was just last week… cuz it was … when _____ bragged about his endorsement from the Log Cabin Republicans, an ALLEGED LGBTQ group, saying he was the best ally of our community. And for a hot minute, right after he was elected, it appeared to be true …

Fourteen days after his ill-attended inauguration, _____ did something  that, at first, seemed like the right thing to do: the White House put out a press release promising to safeguard LGBTQ rights, specifically claiming that _____ would not overturn a 2014 Obama administration executive order protecting LGBTQ employees of federal contractors from workplace discrimination.

And then he began chipping away at our rights, and late last week it was announced that his administration would like to make it legal for LGBTQ Americans to be fired simply for being themselves. The White House is filing a series of briefs in three critical LGBTQ rights cases set to be heard by the Supreme Court this fall as to whether the protections of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, religion and sex, extends to sexual orientation and gender identity. 

In Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia and Altitude Express Inc. v. Zarda, gay men say they were fired because of their sexual orientation, while in R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission takes up the case of a funeral director named Aimee Stephens who was fired from her job after transitioning to female.

Can you, or me, or any LGBTQ American be fired just for being LGBTQ? Well, after that first of many thousands of lies he’s told America in general, and our community specifically, _____has made it clear that his position is: Yes, you can.

And yet the LCR still stands behind him, licking his … boots? We are being shoved back into the closet by a man who has called himself our greatest ally, and who promised not to do this very thing.

The DOJ is also trying to overturn a ruling that set a major precedent back in 1988—Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins—that defined “sex discrimination” as including gender stereotyping. In that case, Ann Hopkins was denied a promotion at consulting firm Price Waterhouse because, as a Lesbian, she was viewed as too aggressive. The court found that this type of stereotyping fell under the definition of sex discrimination.

And all three new cases—Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia; Altitude Express Inc. v. Zarda; R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission—are relying on the Hopkins decision to show that discrimination based on sexual orientation or transgender status is a form of gender stereotyping. 

Don Zarda, a skydiving instructor, was fired after revealing to a client that he had an ex-husband; had he been female, such an admission wouldn’t have triggered a dismissal. In Stephens’ case, she’s being accused of violating the funeral home’s dress code, but had she been a cisgender woman, there would be no violation. But the DOJ brief discounts that argument, claiming that discriminating against Stephens was OK because the funeral home owner, Thomas Rost, would’ve also discriminated against a transgender man.

Oh, well doesn’t that make it all better.

The DOJ brief also mentions Thomas Rost’s religious beliefs, even though they’re not part of his argument. The brief makes sure to quote Rost’s assertion that allowing Stephens to present as a woman “would be violating God’s commands if [he] were to permit one of … male funeral directors to wear the uniform for female funeral directors while at work.”

But it’s not just SCOTUS and the DOJ; using religion, and let’s be queer, it’s the white Christian faith, as a shield for bigotry and homo- and transphobia, _____’s Labor Department has proposed a rule that makes it easier for companies to discriminate against LGBTQ workers because of God.

Now remember, this is from the guy who called himself our greatest ally, and who promised to keep us safe from discrimination, but, again, just last week a reporter at the Washington Blade asked _____ if he was OK with his administration taking steps to make it easier to discriminate against LGBT people in the workforce and _____ refused to answer, saying, instead:

“I’ve done very well with that community and some of my biggest supporters are of that community, and I talk to them a lot about it. I think I’ve done really very well with that community.”

Well, sir, that community, other than the self-loathing asshats in the LCR who have yet to jump ship because they’re enjoying a nice tax cut which helps them look away from hatred and homophobia, is not with you.

And our allies are not with you.

And even if you call yourself our ally, be clear that in 2015, you pulled in just 14% of the LGBTQ vote, and I don’t see that number getting higher this next time around.

We’re here.

We’re queer.

And we see you as the lying homophobic jackass that you are.