Kelly Hayes
Equality Florida Action, the Sunshine State’s largest LGBTQ+ civil rights organization, is condemning “Trump Pride” — an event by President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign designed to build support within the LGBTQ+ community.
The organization considers the events an “attempt by the Trump campaign to disguise their abhorrent record on LGBTQ issues,” and called the effort “desperate.”
“Donald Trump is the worst President the LGBTQ community has ever seen,” Equality Florida Action Executive Director Nadine Smith said in a news release. “This event is a pathetic attempt to hide his appalling record and it’s fooling no one. We are tired of Trump’s lies and our community understands a second term would be devastating.”
On Saturday afternoon, former national intelligence director Richard Grenell is set to speak at one such campaign event in Tampa at the Westshore Grand Hotel. Trump appointed Grenell, who is openly gay, as the national intelligence director from February through May of this year; he has since been replaced.
Despite his appointment, Trump’s relationship with the LGBTQ+ community has been contentious, following his appointments of numerous federal judges who opposed LGBTQ rights and rolled back federal protections for transgender people, according to the Associated Press. Also, the GOP has embraced its 2016 party platform anew for this year’s campaign, a document that “condemns the Supreme Court’s lawless ruling” that legalized same-sex marriage.
The organization has disseminated mailers against the Trump administration in regard to its relationship with the LGBTQ+ community.
The mailers highlight efforts the Trump administration has employed against the LGBTQ+ community, including actions like repealing Obama-Biden era protections for vulnerable LGBTQ+ youth, discharging and banning transgender military service members, as well as opposing federal laws to protect the LGBTQ+ community. The mailers also say the administration wants to give businesses the “right to discriminate” and is packing the Supreme Court with justices who could overthrow marriage equality.
The board of directors for Equality Florida Action unanimously endorsed Democrat Joe Biden and running mate Kamala Harris in its first federal endorsement in its 23-year history. The board cited the candidates’ pro-LGBTQ+ record and their pledges to pass federal protections for LGBTQ people, reinstate Obama-Biden era protections for youth and overturn Trump’s ban on transgender service members.
“Our endorsement of a Biden-Harris ticket is a testament to the grave stakes of this election. The time is now to elect Joe Biden and we are ready to deliver him a win in Florida,” Smith said.
The latest poll from St. Pete Polls shows Biden holding a 2-point lead over Trump.
The spread, Biden with 49% and Trump with 47%, is within the poll’s margin of error. Yet it continues the strong consensus of polls over recent weeks that have mostly shown Biden leading in the Sunshine State by narrow margins. The previous St. Pete Polls survey, taken in September, had Biden up 50%-47%
This poll, commissioned by and paid for AARP Florida, was conducted through automated phone calls to 2,215 likely Florida voters Sunday and Monday, with a margin of error of just over 2 points.
While the overall result supports the continued observation that Biden is winning in Florida, breakdowns reveal some trends that may run counter to assumptions made and data cited by both campaigns.
Trump’s lead in the St. Pete Polls survey was 59% to 38% among voters 70 or older. Biden, on the other hand, is dominating the next-oldest age bracket broken out in the survey, with a 54%-43% advantage among voters ages 50-69. Biden also holds leads among young and middle-age voters.
The St. Pete Polls survey has Trump commanding the preference of White voters by a 57%-40% spread, a slight decline for Biden since the previous survey. Nor is Biden dominating Hispanic voters as his campaign had hoped. They’re breaking for Biden, but by a 54%-43% margin, providing much less than the 58%-60% that some have suggested he needs.
8 comments
James Robert Miles
October 17, 2020 at 3:23 pm
Anyone who believes that the Trump GOP extremist party is in favor of gay rights is living in a dream world! Trump and the GOP are doing everything that they can to take away gay rights which is one of the reasons he picked Barrett as a Supreme Court justice. The two primary reasons are to overturn Roe V Wade and to get rid of gay marriage!! Trump is the world’s biggest liar and anyone who believes ANYTHING he says is delusional or just plain stupid. Trump is getting more and more desperate and will say anything if he thinks that it will bring him votes. What’s left of his followers are primarily evangelicals and they won’t be happy to hear of his supposed support for gay rights. Maybe he will lose a few of their votes as well. Good!! VOTE HIM OUT, LOCK HIM UP! DUMP TRUMP 2020 Save America from a liar and a fascist!!
Sonja Fitch
October 17, 2020 at 4:58 pm
Gay rights ! Hell no! The closest the goptrump cult comes to the LGBTQ is that the letter Qis in the Qanon extremists name! Vote Democrat up and down ballot for the common good!
Pedro
October 18, 2020 at 3:19 am
Trump is a terrible President. His disastrous tenure in office affects us all, whether gay or straight. We must elect Joe Biden and defeat Trump. We also must vote out all of Trump’s Republican enablers. The nomination of Amy Coney Barrett is a definite threat to marriage equality. I have a very hard time understanding how anyone gay who cares about equal rights for all can vote for Trump.
J M
October 18, 2020 at 12:55 pm
TRUMP / PENCE 2020!
J M
October 18, 2020 at 12:56 pm
TRUMP – PENCE will win. Big league. 🙂
William King
October 18, 2020 at 8:59 pm
I am a very proud gay conservative and can’t wait to vote for President Trump, again. He has worked to stop the killing of gays in other parts of the world and to get homosexuality decriminalized across the globe. He is for gay marriage and is the first President to have an openly gay man on his cabinet.
John Tucker
October 19, 2020 at 11:06 am
After The Pulse/FBI debacle and Obama’s inactivity on criticizing gay executions the world over, their hatred of the second amendment and sluggishness in HIV early treatment I do not see how any gay person can vote for a Democrat. Its beyond belief.
Ric L
October 20, 2020 at 4:00 am
It’s okay that you condemn the Trump Pride movement… The vast majority of us gays for trump refuse to associate with the LGBT so-called community. The blatant politicizing of sexuality is disgusting. The so-called community has become nothing more than tool used by the left to shout down anyone with an opinion of their own.
I am an openly gay, happily partnered 42yo man who lived through the time of “Don’t Ask – Don’t Tell”, the Defense Of Marriage Act and the existence of state sodomy laws. I can remember when gay pride was an annual event actually fighting for equality and acceptance. That is no longer the case. In the vast majority of circumstances we now -HAVE- equality, but that’s no longer enough for the LGBT community. Equality is no longer satisfying enough for those members of the public who feel like the public, the world itself, owes them something.
The sheer propaganda and lies within this article and most others circulated by that “community” are literally laughable to anyone who does their own research. The “trans school guidance” which is often thrown around as Trump bashing trans rights, was actually struck down by a Texas federal judge during Obama’s administration before Trump even took office. The changes that the Trump administration made to the Title IX regulations were simply to bring the regulations in-line with what the federal courts already deemed during Obama’s presidency.
This very article spouts off about transgender people being banned and discharged from the military. Maybe you should talk to a few of the current 8,000+ trans service members and get their views on it. There is no ban on trans individuals serving in our military. The restrictions are there for risk management and there is a detailed process within DODI 1300.25 which, if read, show a clear path to military service for trans people. It’s true that they can’t currently be on hormone therapy or planning to transition during their term of enlistment. For the record: Cisgender heterosexual males with low testosterone who use testosterone injections to manage their condition are also barred from service as is anyone who has existing plans to undergo major surgery during their initial term of enlistment (like sexual reassignment). We need to face facts – military service is a privilege, not a right.
This article points out that the GOP platform lists reversing same-sex marriage as one of it’s bullet points, but you don’t bother to look into what the GOP wants as an alternative. Many of us want the same-sex marriage ruling reversed because the government has no right to be legislating religious rites and ceremonies. We WANT civil unions for all, not just for same-sex couples, but for all.
To clarify, we believe that the civil benefits which currently come from marriage (the financial, legal, tax and other benefits under the law) should be granted by a civil contract or civil union. We believe that the government (including individual states) should not be issuing marriage licenses to begin with. Leave that to the churches. This leaves the government completely out of our religious lives regardless of our faith. It wouldn’t matter if you’re wiccan, pagan, christian, buddhist, satanist, jedi or whatever other faith you believe in. There would be no need for the government to get involved in your faith. The ceremonial act of promising yourself to another person would be entirely unencumbered by government. You would then go to a lawyer, justice or court clerk to register your partnership and gain the legal / civil rights in a contract that any two consenting adults can enter into.
Civil unions for all, rather than government sanctioned marriage, would be true religious and civil equality for all.
Gay republican groups like the Log Cabin GOP exist for a reason. The GOP exists for a reason. We are here because we believe in true equality, less government, less regulation, fiscal / financial responsibility and because we believe that individualism and our differences should be celebrated.
I’m not here to change minds or sway anyone to vote for Trump. I’m just stating why I am voting republican. I’m voting republican because since I walked away from the so-called LGBT community, started discovering and determining the truth for myself… I have been welcomed with open arms by the republican party. Literally every single republican voter, candidate and party employee has treated me as an equal and truly appreciated my involvement. THAT is community, not this mudslinging and constant lying.
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