30 April 2017

Hopeful or Hopeless?

The Advocate published a short essay on Friday (link here) with the title "The Challenge of Staying Hopeful in the Age of Trump."

The piece chronicles the emotional whiplash many of us have felt moving from the Obama Era into the Donald Trump presidency. President Obama's leadership saw eight years of tremendous strides for LGBT Americans.

But now, under Trump, we live under an administration that occasionally claims to be pro-LGBT but nearly every move has either elevated an anti-LGBT homophobe to a position of power or has pandered to the hateful anti-LGBT segment of the population.

The essay also mentions an issue that never even crossed my mind before: Trump's executive orders that blocked entry to people from seven predominately Muslim countries was particularly harsh to LGBT people from those nations.

Why? The answer is simple: six of those seven countries severely punish anyone known to be LGBT. So if a gay or lesbian or trans person was fleeing Syria or Iran because he or she was persecuted for being different, that person would be denied entry to the United States.

In effect, these people would not be blocked because they were potential terrorists but because they were LBGT. So much for compassionate conservatives.

Fortunately, both a federal district court and a federal appeals court have blocked Trump's anti-Muslim executive orders, but his callousness in signing this order demonstrates how LGBT people can be swept up in his draconian, dictatorial policies.

All things considered, we are stronger as a LGBT community, thanks in part to President Obama. That community strength will help us as we join together and fight back against Obama's successor.

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous04:38

    Mas zozobra que esperanzas.Amigovenezolano,Cucuta

    ReplyDelete

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