Dump Trump: As RNC Convention Plays Out in Cleveland, HRC Unveils New Website

With the RNC Convention in its finalday, HRC has unveiled a new website detailing Donald Trump’s dangerous positions on issues of LGBTQ equality.

We have seen so much progress for the LGBTQ community under the leadership of President Barack Obama, and it all could be reversed by a Donald Trump presidency. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has attacked, belittled and maligned anyone and everyone he considers different.

Here are just a few ways that Donald Trump has threatened to roll back LGBTQ equality:

• Vowed to rescind marriage equality and — with a vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court — pledged to appoint U.S. Supreme Court justices who would overturn last year’s historic ruling;

• Has vowed to sign the so-called “First Amendment Defense Act,” which would allow individuals, many businesses and nonprofit organizations to circumvent critical federal protections and blatantly discriminate against LGBTQ families;

• Would support anti-LGBTQ governors like North Carolina’s Pat McCrory or Indiana’s Mike Pence when they write discrimination into state law;

• Has pledged to repeal President Obama’s executive orders, which include protections for LGBTQ employees of federal contractors;

• Has verbally attacked women, immigrants, Muslims, people of color, people living with disabilities, asylum seekers and others for political gain.

What’s more, Trump’s record on LGBTQ equality stands in stark contrast with presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, who has stood with the LGBTQ community, has pledged to protect our hard-fought protections and proposed the most robust LGBTQ equality agenda of anyone running for president.

In recent weeks, Donald Trump has reaffirmed his opposition to transgender equality, appeared alongside Tony Perkins — leader of SPLC-designated hate group the Family Research Council — and delusionally bragged about fictional support from the LGBTQ community in the wake of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando. His false claims about his own support are belied by his own long record of opposing LGBTQ equality.

Now, Trump has doubled down on his anti-LGBTQ agenda by putting Indiana Gov. Mike Pence on the ticket. Pence became a national disgrace in 2015 for his “license to discriminate” bill that could have allowed businesses to deny service to LGBTQ people — and for subsequently defending the bill after an outcry from the business community and a majority of Hoosier voters. In a now notorious interview with ABC last year, Pence refused to answer eight separate times when asked whether businesses should be able to discriminate against LGBTQ people.

Pence’s discriminatory bill had enormous consequences for the business and economic health of Indiana after a flood of companies spoke out against his bill. Indianapolis’s nonprofit tourism agency estimated that in their city alone, Pence’s anti-LGBTQ bill cost up to 12 conventions and $60 million in lost revenue. Polling conducted by HRC after the 2015 fight found that 75 percent of Hoosiers said the debate was bad for the state’s economy and 70 percent of those surveyed said they opposed the law.

Today, Hoosiers have strongly negative feelings toward Pence. In a recent poll, only 40 percent approved of his job performance and 42 percent disapproved.

Visit www.hrc.org/dumptrump to learn more about why Donald Trump is unfit for the presidency.

www.hrc.org/blog/dump-trump-as-rnc-convention-plays-out-in-cleveland-hrc-unveils-new-website?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Meet 5 LGBTQ-Supportive Republican Members of Congress Who Skipped the Party’s Convention

There’s been much written about all of the prominent Republicans who skipped the party’s convention in Cleveland this week. Former presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush aren’t there. The two most recent presidential nominees, Mitt Romney and Sen. John McCain, aren’t there either.

Nearly two dozen senators have skipped out, as have many House members.

But why? Some are facing tough re-election bids in the fall and chose to stay home to focus on their own campaigns. Still others offered more candid rejections of Trump’s candidacy. “I’ve got to mow my lawn,” said Ariz. Sen. Jeff Flake, while Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse planned to watch Dumpster fires with his kids instead.

We know that several LGBTQ-supportive Republican public officials have also declined to attend the convention, though some have kept their reasons to themselves. Meet five of them:

1. Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk’s leadership on LGBTQ equality includes his co-sponsorship of the Equality Act, which would add sexual orientation and gender identity to existing civil rights laws that ban discrimination in employment, housing, public spaces, education, credit, federal funding and jury service. He also co-sponsored the Safe Schools Improvement Act, which would help schools address bullying.

   Kirk, who was endorsed for re-election by HRC earlier this year, supported the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” voted for numerous HIV/AIDS funding measures, voted twice against the Federal Marriage Amendment that would have outlawed same-sex marriage, and served as the lead Republican co-sponsor of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act

   In June, Kirk rescinded his endorsement of Trump.

   “. . . I cannot and will not support my party’s nominee for President regardless of the political impact on my candidacy or the Republican Party,” Kirk said.

   “After much consideration, I have concluded that Donald Trump has not demonstrated the temperament necessary to assume the greatest office in the world,” he said.

2. Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker stood up for equality earlier this month when he signed into law bipartisan legislation extending crucial protections to the transgender community. State law already prohibited discrimination against transgender people in housing and employment, and the new law extends these same crucial protections to public accommodations, such as access to restaurants, malls, restrooms, and locker rooms.

   When asked why he was skipping the convention, Baker said, “I think I can be a lot more effective here than I would be there.”
    

3. Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval has a long history of supporting equal rights for the LGBTQ community. In 2011, over the course of a few weeks, he signed bills into law that codified prohibitions against discrimination in public accommodations and housing and expanded the state’s anti-discrimination laws in employment to cover gender identity or expression.

   In 2014, he signed legislation adding gender identity and expression to the state’s hate crimes law, and that same year, he announced he would oppose attempts to delay marriage equality in the state.

   Sandoval declined to give a reason for skipping the 2016 Republican National Convention.
    

4. Earlier this year, Illinois Rep. Bob Dold became the first Republican member of the House of Representatives to endorse the Equality Act. Dold also supports marriage equality and voted to uphold President Obama’s executive order on Discrimination Against LGBT Federal Contractors. In June of 2015, Dold joined 60 Republican members of the House to uphold President Obama’s executive order on discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

   Dold, who was endorsed for re-election by HRC, says he is avoiding the convention because he does not support Donald Trump.

   “I am not going to be supportive of Donald Trump,” he said.” For me, it’s a very personal thing.”

   Dold was particularly offended when Trump said that Sen. John McCain, who was once captured as a prisoner of war, was not a war hero.

   “My uncle was the second one shot down,” Dold says. “He spent eight years and a day in a prison in Vietnam. So, if anybody wants to say that his service to our country is anything less than heroic is unacceptable.”

5. Florida Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen has long been a crucial Republican ally of equality and stands out as the first Republican member of Congress to support marriage equality.

   She earned a perfect score on the HRC Congressional Scorecard. As one of the leading voices on LGBT equality in Congress, she has been adamant in her support for LGBT young people, including her support of non-discrimination protections, anti-bullying and harassment policies, and her opposition to the shameful practice of so-called “conversion therapy.”

   Ros-Lehtinen did not share a reason for skipping the Republican National Convention but said previously that she would not vote for Donald Trump.

www.hrc.org/blog/meet-5-lgbtq-supportive-republican-members-of-congress-who-skipped-the-part?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

NBA says no to discrimination, moves 2017 All-Star game from North Carolina

www.glaad.org/blog/nba-says-no-discrimination-moves-2017-all-star-game-north-carolina

Donald Trump Says the Darndest Things! (Video)

Stephen Colbert tests Republican delegates on whether Trump actually said he’s well-endowed or that his children smell good.

www.advocate.com/comedy/2016/7/21/donald-trump-says-darndest-things-video

NBA Pulls All-Star Game From North Carolina Due to HB 2

The basketball league is reportedly looking to New Orleans after North Carolina failed to back down from anti-LGBT legislation.

www.advocate.com/sports/2016/7/21/nba-pulls-all-star-game-north-carolina-due-hb-2

Florida School Principal Reacts To Post-Orlando Same-Sex Kiss: “Kill Gays”

We once heard social media described as truth serum — that on a long enough timeline, people cannot hold their tongues and will out themselves for who they truly are to the world.

Steve Kenney, principal of Center Academy in Pinellas Park in Florida, is an example of this phenomenon. He has now been outed to the world as a religiously inspired, fanatical homophobe who has no business shaping young minds. At least not until he gets the help he obviously needs.

Cyd Zeigler of Outsports has just published an account of an exchange he had over Facebook, and then offline, with and concerning Kenney, which started shortly after the mass shooting in Orlando at the Pulse nightclub.

Zeigler writes that he posted the following photo of himself kissing his husband to his personal Facebook page:

“The day after the tragedy, in the hope of reminding my personal network of the love in the world by sharing more pictures of gay couples kissing, I posted this photograph of my husband and partner of 13 years, Dan Pinar, and me on my public-facing Facebook account,” Ziegler says in his Outsports article, explaining his motivation for making the post.

As is often the case with social media, the message quickly reached beyond just his “personal network” and found its way to Kenney’s newsfeed, effectively popping the so-called “Facebook filter bubble.” Kenney responded to the photo first with a single word: “Sick.”

Kenney wasn’t done unloading his hateful rhetoric, turning to some of the worst passages of the Bible to do his dirty work for him thereafter, calling for the murdering of gay people.

Ziegler reports that this sent “shivers” down his spine, “particularly given the timing, literally hours after the Orlando shooting.”

“While Kenney was clearly not harming anyone physically with his post, and while it would be hyperbole to suggest there was any actual intent to do so on Kenney’s part, I thought about how religious doctrine was again at play, as it had been just 36 hours earlier in Orlando,” Ziegler writes.

“My heart sank as I clicked on Kenney’s Facebook page to see he listed himself as the head of Center Academy in Pinellas Park, Fla., just 100 miles from where the Orlando massacre took place and where the Tampa Bay Rays would honor the dead later that week. I wondered how an educator of young minds — a school principal — could not only think such terrible things about gay people, but go a step further and post them on a stranger’s loving photo only hours after the massacre.”

“It is horrifying to realize there are people in leadership roles in education who hold these repugnant views,” he quotes GLSEN executive director Eliza Byard as having said to him. “Saying gay people deserve to die is so far beyond the pale it is horrifying, and any time we learn of someone with those views, we must do what we can to make sure they are not directing the education of young people.”

To make matters worse, the school Kenney is a principal at is for students with special needs.

“How particularly ugly and horrifying that someone who works with a more vulnerable population, who are so prone to face additional challenges to having a happy and fulfilling life, would do this,” Byard said.

“Religion-based bigotry is shameful – it is wrong. Youth who are LGBT are at high risk of suicide and negative health harms and are subject to harassment and violence,” Shane Windmeyer, Executive Director of Campus Pride, a national educational organization for LGBTQ and ally college students, told me when I asked for his reaction. “The principal needs to create a safe learning environment for all students. I don’t see how such a person would be able to do that for LGBT youth. His posts are deplorable in light of the Orlando shooting – and simply not what you expect of a principal. Parents and families should be appalled and asking serious questions about this school.”

Ziegler reached out to Center Academy CEO Andrew Hicks to inform him of Kenney’s comments. Hicks told him that he had spoken to Kenney about it and that Kenney had promised not to make similar posts in the future.

When Ziegler inquired about disciplinary actions against Kenney or any LGBT education and training in the school, Hicks said he could not share that information but stated that he was looking into the possibility of LGBT training.

Ziegler attempted to speak with Kenney personally, but those attempts were ignored.

“I don’t want Kenney to lose his job. I don’t,” Ziegler explains. “I do want there to be repercussions for his insensitivity; if I were the school administration, I would consider suspending him without pay. And I do want this whole thing to be a learning experience for him and a catalyst for change for the school. I want the parents and administration to be very aware of this issue. I want them to be the eyes and ears on the ground watching Kenney’s decisions. I want them to make sure that every LGBT student in that school feels included, and that programs are set up in Center Academy to ensure that Kenney’s statements about gay people being ‘sick’ don’t dictate school policy or programs.

“I want Kenney to introduce an LGBT speaker at a school assembly. I want Kenney to shake the hand of a gay athlete sharing her story with the athletic department.

“I know the school will ultimately find its way through this, and I share this story publicly to make sure it does.”

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Michelle Obama’s Carpool Karaoke With James Corden Is The Best One Yet

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