President Trump on Friday acknowledged Pride Month and praised the "outstanding contributions" of LGBT Americans.
Credit where credit is due: Trump broke with tradition--his own--and finally recognized Pride Month after ignoring it for the past two years.
Blame where blame is due: Trump still heads the most anti-LGBTQ+ administration in decades, and actions speak a lot louder than words. Trump picked virulently anti-LGBTQ+ Mike Pence as his running mate (and Trump knew it full well). He then appointed consistently anti-LGBTQ+ Jeff Sessions as his Attorney General--who, as expected, promptly directed the Department of Justice to adopt consistently anti-LGBTQ+ positions, both in its own policies and before the courts. The rest of Trumpās cabinet has followed suit:
āThe Department of Health and Human Services released a proposal last week rolling back health care protections for transgender people. The regulation would scrap ObamaCareās definition of āsex discriminationā to remove protections for gender identity. In addition, the Department of Housing and Urban Development proposed a rule earlier this month that would roll back protections for homeless transgender people by allowing federally funded shelters to turn away transgender people for religious reasons. The administration also finalized rules earlier this month giving more leeway to health workers to deny people treatment if doing so would violate their religious or moral beliefs. The Pentagonās policy barring most transgender people from serving in the military unless they serve under their biological sex took effect last month following a series of court battles.ā
Trump has taken numerous other steps to curtail LGBTQ+ rights, āfrom nominating judges aligned with anti-gay hate groups to banning transgender people from the military.ā He opposes marriage equality, champions anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination under the guise of religious freedom, and openly supports anti-LGBTQ+ hate groups. In just the past few months alone, Trump ārolled back healthcare rules aimed at helping LGBTQ people and also opposed the passage of the Equality Act.ā
So yeah. Good for Trump for not ignoring Pride Month again and paying it lip service, because thatās better than nothing.
But only just barely.
