Log Cabin Again Licks Trump's Boots But Ignores His True LGBTQ+ Record

Log Cabin Republicans' board chairman has written an op-ed in USA Today praising Donald Trump's record on LGBTQ+ rights.

"Today, the Republican Party is delivering real results and leadership for our community," Robert Kabel writes in the article, published Thursday. These "meaningful policy victories," he says, are due largely "to the leadership of President Donald Trump." Democrats, according to Kabel, "have taken the lesbian and gay community for granted."

The results Kabel points to include the Trump administration's work in fighting HIV and AIDS, such as arranging donation of HIV prevention medications from Gilead Sciences. He also points to the administration's campaign to decriminalize homosexuality globally, spearheaded by Richard Grenell, a gay man who has been U.S. ambassador to Germany and acting director of national intelligence during Trump's presidency.

Kabel further notes that in the latter position, Grenell was the first out gay person to hold a cabinet-level post, and that Trump has appointed two out federal judges, Mary Rowland and Patrick Bumatay. Log Cabin endorsed Trump for reelection a year ago.

"These accomplishments should not suggest the president's work is finished," Kabel continues. "Before being elected president, Donald Trump supported amending the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to include sexual orientation; his administration's resistance to protecting gay, lesbian and transgender employees from discrimination in the workplace in the recent Supreme Court case was thus disappointing. I'd also encourage the president to reconsider his stance on transgender men and women serving in the military."

But Kabel ignores the fact that the resistance to antidiscrimination protections and the trans military ban are just two among many of the Trump administration's anti-LGBTQ+ actions. Trump and his administration have used executive orders and the rule-making process (which determines how laws will be interpreted and enforced) to undermine LGBTQ+ Americans at every turn, allowing for discrimination in health care, foster and adoption services, admission to homeless shelters, and more. Many faith-based organizations receive federal funds to provide social services, and the administration has backed their right to discriminate against LGBTQ+ people in the name of religious freedom.

And while Trump has appointed two out federal judges, he has appointed many more who oppose LGBTQ+ equality. For his two Supreme Court appointments, Neil Gorsuch proved a pleasant surprise in writing the ruling that banned anti-LGBTQ+ job discrimination, but Brett Kavanaugh joined in the dissent from it. In the case, the administration argued that the Civil Rights Act's section on sex discrimination did not apply to discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and it has argued for the freedom to discriminate in other cases. Trump also has many anti-LGBTQ+ cabinet members, such as Ben Carson at Housing and Urban Development and Rick Perry at the Department of Energy.

As far as Democrats taking LGBTQ+ Americans for granted, well, the Democratic-majority House of Representatives has passed the Equality Act, which would codify that Supreme Court decision (important since a future court could overturn it) and ban anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination in other aspects of life, such as housing, credit, and public accommodations. The act received little Republican support in the House and is stalled in the Republican-controlled Senate, and Trump has said he would not sign it. Republicans have introduced an alternative bill, the Fairness for All Americans Act, which would have much broader religious exemptions. Democratic House members have also taken stands against the trans military ban and other anti-LGBTQ+ actions by the Trump administration.

When Barack Obama was president, he signed into law the first pro-LGBTQ+ bill ever passed by Congress, the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which includes anti-LGBTQ+ crimes in the definition of hate crimes and provides resources to combat them. He also signed the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell," lifted the trans military ban (which Trump reinstated), issued numerous pro-LGBTQ+ executive orders, fought discrimination abroad, and ceased defending the Defense of Marriage Act in court. While he and Vice President Joe Biden didn't always support marriage equality, they did come out for it in 2012, when they were up for reelection -- and they won. Biden is now running for president on the most pro-LGBTQ+ platform in history, and his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, is a longtime LGBTQ+ ally -- a marked contrast to Trump's vice president, Mike Pence.