Trump To Keep Obama Executive Order on LGBT Workplace Protections In Place

You can’t please everybody.

And some, because of political ideology, will seek out fault, rather than extend an ounce of grace.

For that very reason, pandering is a bad idea. A better course would be to set good policy and then stand on it.

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On Tuesday morning, the Trump administration announced that an Obama executive order protecting LGBTQ persons in the workplace would stand.

“President Donald J. Trump is determined to protect the rights of all Americans, including the LGBTQ community,” said a statement from his press secretary’s office. “President Trump continues to be respectful and supportive of LGBTQ rights, just as he was throughout the election.”

Yes, I remember how he turned his nose up at my governor, Pat McCrory, and the HB2 bathroom law kerfuffle, leaning in favor of allowing men in women’s bathrooms.

The executive order he is keeping was passed in 2014, and adds “gender identity” to the list of protected classes in the non-discrimination clause for federal contract workers.

Trump praises himself on being an LGBTQ-friendly president, and mentioned as much at the RNC Convention in July 2016.

“As your president, I will do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens from the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology,” he said, as he officially accepted the GOP nomination.

Meanwhile, LGBTQ groups, who largely lean far left, aren’t really ready to accept any olive branches from the new president.

“LGBTQ refugees, immigrants, Muslims and women are scared today, and with good reason. Donald Trump has done nothing but undermine equality since he set foot in the White House,” Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin said in a statement on Tuesday. “Donald Trump has left the key question unanswered — will he commit to opposing any executive actions that allow government employees, taxpayer-funded organizations or even companies to discriminate?”

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Translation: A) Open the gates to Muslim immigrants, and B) open the bathrooms to men who say they “feel” like girls.

Of course, Griffin also attacked VP Pence and Senator Jeff Sessions, Trump’s pick to be attorney general, saying the two men had spent their careers limiting the rights of the LGBTQ community.

Not really true. There is no vendetta against the LGBTQ community, but I guess it serves his purpose to be a total drama queen.

“You can’t claim to be an ally when you send LGBTQ refugees back to countries where their lives are at risk. You can’t claim support and then rip away life-saving services made possible through the Affordable Care Act for transgender people and those living with HIV or AIDS. You can’t be a friend to this community and appoint people to run the government who compare being gay to bestiality,” he added.

It’s a long list of grievances. Simply keeping Obama’s executive order in place isn’t going to win over the gay community to Trump’s side, when they are so deeply entrenched in Democrat territory.

On Monday, Bloomberg noted that the order would likely be amended, rather than rescinded.

“It may be more likely that President Donald Trump will broaden its religious exemption than outright rescind the order, observers told Bloomberg BNA,” according to the report.

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With two diametrically opposed ideologies, the gay community on one side and the Christian community on the other, it’s likely the president will end up running afoul of both before finding any common ground for them to work together.

It’s an interesting thing that goes on in the various liberal sects. They tend to cling together, so even when one sect is getting what they want, they’ll continue to throw darts at the other side, out of tribal loyalty.

Trump isn’t going to win this one, but at least he tried.

 

 

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