Donald Trump and his people know that.”Īnd Trump hasn’t expressed any willingness to spend political capital on changing the party’s platform, a divisive fight at a time when he’s trying to focus his energy on beating Hillary Clinton in the general election.
TRUMP ON GAY BAR SHOOTING FULL
“If you look at the makeup of the platform committee, it’s full of rock-ribbed conservatives. “Forces may try to use this as an opportunity and I think it would be a mistake,” said Ed Martin, president of the Eagle Forum, an evangelical group fighting to defend conservative planks at the Republican convention. If even a quarter of them are willing to strike the party’s approach to gay marriage – the minimum number needed to force a debate of the issue on the convention floor – it would be a surprise, they said. Ted Cruz’s protracted battle with Trump for influence at the convention led to the appointment of hundreds of conservative delegates, from Virginia’s Ken Cuccinelli to Louisiana’s Tony Perkins, who will have outsized voices in the party’s debate. Even backers of a moderate approach acknowledge that disadvantage. Most members of the Republican convention’s 112-member Platform Committee, they note, are likely to be hardcore conservative activists. “He can reset the clock for Republicans on LGBTQ issues if he’s willing to bring down the hammer on reactionary elements in the Party, and drive home the point that Orlando was not just an attack on America, but it was an attack aimed directly at American LGBTQ citizens …Republicans have to admit this reality and it needs to be reflected in the platform with language that supports ending discrimination and expanding equality.”Ĭonservatives, though, aren’t prepared to give any ground on the issue. “Trump has a real opportunity to help expand the party by pushing Republicans to accept the reality of what happened in Orlando,” Fluharty said. John Fluharty, an openly gay adviser to the Delaware GOP, said de-emphasizing language opposing same-sex marriage could invite gay Americans to vote for Republicans in November. “If Republicans try to position themselves as being justified in maintaining harsh anti-gay rhetoric in the platform … you better believe that Democrats are going to demonize them any chance they get.” Angelo, president of the Log Cabin Republicans. embassies.īiden issued an executive order on Friday that required all federal agencies to evaluate the current state of diversity, equity and inclusion within their workforces and produce plans to address any issues.“I believe we truly hit a tipping point in the LGBT equality movement in the United States in that for so long, you had Republicans reluctant to even mention the phrase ‘LGBT community’ and here we have our presumptive Republican presidential nominee not only using that phrase but directly expressing sympathy,” said Gregory T. military and on flying rainbow Pride flags at U.S. He also reversed a Trump-era ban on transgender people openly serving in the U.S. He has ordered federal agencies to protect LGBTQ people under federal anti-discrimination laws. The new Orlando site will join other memorials, including the National AIDS Memorial Grove in San Francisco and New York City's Stonewall Inn, a national monument commemorating what is seen as the birthplace of the modern gay rights movement following riots after police raided the gay bar in 1969.īiden has sought to reverse course from former President Donald Trump, who did not officially recognize Pride month. But civil rights activists said the massacre was also a hate crime targeting gay men and Latinos frequenting the club. In Florida, authorities branded the 2016 shooting an act of extremism by a 29-year-old U.S. "We must protect the gains we've made," he said. states do not have specific protections for LGBTQ+ Americans and their families. diplomacy and foreign assistance include LGBTQ rights.Īfter signing the legislation, Biden noted that half of U.S. On Friday, he named Jessica Stern, head of the New York-based human rights group OutRight Action International, to be a special envoy at the U.S. "Our presence this afternoon makes a very strong statement: Pride is back at the White House," Biden said, after being introduced by Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who is openly gay, and a young transgender man, Ashton Mota.