Back in the 1950s, Roy was a self-hating gay man deep in the closet. Nevertheless, Roy enjoyed persecuting gay men. Whenever he could, he outed gay men so they would lose their jobs. Sometimes he even helped prosecute them so they ended up ruined and in jail.
Roy also helped Don with his business. When Don was sued by some African-Americans because Don refused to rent to them, Roy agreed to represent him.
Because of this, Don always spoke warmly about Roy and considered him a friend and mentor. Don still speaks fondly about Roy to this day.
Chances are, you'd think Don was pretty despicable for having a friend like Roy. A man should be judged by the friends he keeps, particularly when they're racist homophobes.
Turns out, this story is true, and a good number of you probably already know that Don is Donald Trump and Roy is Roy Cohn.
Roy Cohn has long been considered a particularly loathsome individual, a gay man who persecuted gays, a Jew who hated Jews, and a soulless lawyer who defended the indefensible.
And Donald Trump still considers him a friend and mentor.
The Advocate published a good article on Wednesday with the title Lessons Learned: Roy Cohn, Trump's Gay Mentor, Shows the Importance of Community (link here) that, in turn, links to other interesting pieces about the intertwined Cohn/Trump history.
How can Donald Trump claim to be a friend of LGBT Americans when he still admires a man like Roy Cohn who gleefully destroyed so many gay and lesbian citizens?
(Right-click photo to see and save larger original.)
LGBT and Climate Change pages already taken down--during his inauguration speech, no less. More to come, no doubt.
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