The Most Powerful Vice President Ever

Earlier in Donald Trump’s campaign, before Mike Pence was chosen as his running mate, former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, explained how Trump would run the country. He said the vice president of the Trump administration would really be the Chief Executive Officer or President of the company, seeing to the day to day operations. While Trump would act more like the Chairman of the Board, more hands off and be available when needed.

Manafort said “He [Trump] needs an experienced person to do the part of the job he doesn’t want to do. He seems himself more as the chairman of the board, than even the CEO, let alone the COO…  There is a long list of who that person could be.”   And now we know: that person is Mike Pence. Manafort’s quote and other commentary has suggested that Pence could be “the most powerful vice president ever.” Pence’s first duty is chairman of Trump’s transition team?  Filling all the major positions in the incoming Trump administration.

The main problem with the power shift to Pence is that he is one of the most anti-LGBTQ, evangelical Christian politicians to serve in Congress and as governor of a state. His history includes supporting conversion therapy, stating that marriage equality would lead to “societal collapse” and calling homosexuality a choice. Pence has said that stopping the LGBTQ community from marrying wasn’t biased, but was rather about compelling “God’s idea.”  After all, he was the one who, last year, signed the anti-LGBTQ Religious Freedom Restoration Act into law.

If Manafort’s predictions are correct, Trump will take a ‘hands-off’ approach on LGBTQ issues and allow Pence to get his way.  In fact, the assault on LGBTQ rights is already underway. That’s why we must pull ourselves out of grief, get fired up, and begin the fight right now.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mike-pence-assault-lgbtq-equality_us_58275a17e4b02d21bbc8ff9b

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Trump is Not Fooling the LGBTQ Community

Trump is Not Fooling the LGBTQ Community

Donald Trump opened a rally in Colorado while holding a LGBTQ rainbow flag. “LGBTs for Trump” was written in black marker on the flag. Did he speak on LGBTQ issues during the event? Trump’s speech covered his usual talking points: repealing Obamacare, a corrupt election, and bashing Hillary Clinton.

LGBTQ advocates don’t believe Trump’s gesture and 72% of LGBTQ voters will vote for Clinton in the election. Trump’s choice of running mate, did not help him gain any points with the LGBTQ community. Mike Pence has a history of supporting anti-LGBTQ laws, such as the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and trying to overturn marriage equality.

Here are some quotes from the Trump / Pence ticket about LGBTQ rights and issues.

Transgender Bathroom Access
Trump: After previously stating that North Carolina should “leave it the way it is,” and permit transgender individuals to use the restroom they feel most comfortable using, Donald Trump told ABC News on May 13, 2016, “I believe it should be states’ rights and the state should make the decision. They’re more capable of making the decision.” Trump made this comment after the Obama administration issued guidance directing public schools to allow transgender students to use restrooms matching their gender identity.

Pence: In response to the directive issued by the Obama administration on May 13, 2016, stating that transgender public school students must be afforded the right to use bathrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identities, Pence said, “The federal government has no business getting involved in issues of this nature.”

Marriage Equality
Trump: During a November 2013 interview on MSNBC, Trump said “I think I’m evolving, and I think I’m a very fair person, but I have been for traditional marriage. I am for traditional marriage, I am for a marriage between a man and a woman.”

Pence: In 2006, Pence supported a constitutional amendment that would have defined marriage as between a man and a woman. Pence said in a speech that cited a Harvard researcher, “societal collapse was always brought about following an advent of the deterioration of marriage and family.” Pence also said that being gay is a choice and that preventing gay couples from marrying was not discrimination, but a means of enforcing “God’s idea.”

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell
Pence: He supported Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, the policy that prohibited soldiers from openly identifying as gay until it was ended in 2011. Pence told CNN in 2010 that without the policy, the military could become “a backdrop for social experimentation.”

Don’t forget that Election Day is Tuesday November 8th. Go out and vote!

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Parents Who Support Your LGBT Family AND Trump?

I recently came across this great article on Huffington Post, When You’re LGBT And Your Family Is Voting For Trump. Oh good, I thought, I’m not the only one out there.

My husband and I have supportive families, mine being the most supportive of all. My mother will proudly tell any Pastor that her son didn’t choose to be gay, and then proceed to ask him when did he choose to be straight. Both families came to our wedding, and both families love and adore their grandson. But both families, support Donald Trump.

In all honesty, I think Trump supports the LGBT community. A man of that level of wealth, living in NYC, I don’t think he’s the religious anti-gay candidate like he is showcasing to the Republican Party. He’s simply telling them what they want to hear. But Trump chose Mike Pence as his running mate. Pence has been on record applauding businesses for firing employees who are openly gay, encourages Religious Freedom Laws that directly discriminate against my family and is on task to see that the Supreme Court overturns Marriage Equality.

When getting into a discussion surrounding the Trump-Pence ticket, families supporting them often say there is more to worry about in this election then LGBT “issues”. For my husband and I, there simply isn’t. Put yourself in our shoes. If a candidate was running for President who threatened to denounce your marriage, end your ability to adopt children and force you into the closet for fear you could legally be fired for being straight – would you support them?

When it comes down to protecting my family, that is the only issue I am worried about.

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Hate Can Rip Us Apart

For some people, when they hear the words hate crime, a young man named Matthew Shepard comes to mind. Lately when the word hate is uttered it is usually in connection with presidential nominee Donald Trump. Judy Shepard, mother of Matthew, is in a new ad denouncing Trump and his campaign of hate.

Judy says in the ad “When I see the hate that Donald Trump has brought to his campaign for president, it terrifies me. Words have an influence. Violence causes pain. Hate can rip us apart. I know what can happen as a result of hate, and Donald Trump should never be our president.”

Watch the ad here.

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Trump/Pence Anti-LGBTQ Platform

Republican Vice President Nominee Mike Pence has confirmed what we already knew, the Trump/Pence ticket is firmly anti-LGBTQ. Pence spoke with Dr. James Dobson in an interview for The Christian Post, an anti-LGBTQ publication. Dobson is also the founder of some of the largest anti-LGBTQ organizations in the country, Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council.

Here is a summary of the Trump/Pence anti-LGBTQ platform:
– Pence states that a Trump/Pence presidency will let local governments resolve bathroom issues for transgender students. He said that children’s “safety” and “privacy” should be priorities in these decisions. These terms reiterate the myth that transgender students are somehow a threat to other students and should be kept out of restrooms that match their gender identity.

– The Trump/Pence campaign has promised to appoint Supreme Court justices who would overturn marriage equality.

– Trump and Pence have both promised to sign the First Amendment Defense Act, a federal bill that would legalize various forms of anti-LGBTQ discrimination under the disguise of religious freedom.

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Gays for Trump, but Trump for Gays?

I’ve never been one to fully stand with one particular party on all of their issues and stances. There are laws and bills put forward by both Republicans and Democrats that I can often stand behind, or stand against. Whether it’s fiscal responsibility, gun control measures or family rights there are multiple view points and reasons why we vote the way we do.

Recently, I came across this article, highlighting why some LGBT community members are pro-Trump, which immediately confused me.  As much as I don’t want to vote based on one issue or area (I value looking at a candidate’s full plan, ideas and past) I can’t look past the fact that Trump has aligned himself with Governor Pence.

Pence just spent the past year advocating and signing into law a bill that directly discriminated against our community.  What if this man takes this plan with him to DC?  Marriage equality isn’t exactly “equal” if a business has the right to turn my husband and I away if they don’t believe we should be married in the first place. I can’t imagine having to explain to my child why a restaurant or a business just asked us to leave.  Equality means equal and I fear Gays for Trump don’t realize that Trump-Pence isn’t for Gays.

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