Donald Trump's Pride Month Tweet Has People Calling Out These Policies
June 1 marks the beginning of Pride month, and many LGBTQ people and allies are gearing up for celebrations of the LGBTQ community all over the world. As with any month-long celebration and remembrance of a community, politicians and public figures are chiming in with their thoughts and comments, including the president of the United States, who posted a Pride tweet ahead of the first day of Pride month. Donald Trump's Pride month 2019 tweet has people calling out his administration's policies that seem to contradict his comments.
Even though his tweets make him the first Republican president to comment on Pride month, President Donald Trump's message about Pride and "the outstanding contributions LGBT people have made" to the U.S. is getting some pushback from people who view his messaging as something that doesn't reflect his administration's actions. In a series of two tweets on Friday, May 31, Trump wrote:
As we celebrate LGBT Pride Month and recognize the outstanding contributions LGBT people have made to our great Nation, let us also stand in solidarity with the many LGBT people who live in dozens of countries worldwide that punish, imprison, or even execute individuals....(sic) on the basis of their sexual orientation. My Administration has launched a global campaign to decriminalize homosexuality and invite all nations to join us in this effort!
After his tweet went up, several people responded by pointing out the ways his administration has made moves they say cause harm to LGBTQ people, rather than "stand in solidarity" with them. CNN commentator Ana Navarro-Cárdenas responded to Trump, noting the ways his administration's policies have impacted transgender people serving in the military and decreased protections for LGBTQ+ youth and students, including transgender kids who want to use bathrooms that match their gender identity.
In more recent weeks, the Trump administration has even pushed back against the Equality Act, which was recently passed in the House of Representatives, with a Trump official saying at the time, "The Trump administration absolutely opposes discrimination of any kind and supports the equal treatment of all. However, this bill in its current form is filled with poison pills that threaten to undermine parental and conscience rights."
Jesse Tyler Ferguson, the actor who plays Mitchell Pritchett on Modern Family, also responded to the president's tweet while highlighting how it contradicts some of his administration's policies. He wrote,
You can’t celebrate us during pride & reject us the rest of the year; stripping rights from our trans family in military service, our adoption rights & allowing for religious entities to refuse us basic rights. We reject you. Bai
Others chimed in to the conversation with more criticism of the president's Pride tweets.
The Trump administration's most recent proposals to current policies that would roll back protections for transgender people were introduced just weeks before the president's history-making tweet. The proposals include one announced by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that would roll back protections that currently prevent health care providers from discriminating against patients based on their gender identity. The other proposed policy, which was introduced on May 22 by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), would allow homeless shelters and federally funded housing units to consider sex and gender identity when deciding whether to accept someone. The White House, HHS, and HUD did not respond to Elite Daily's previous requests for comment on the proposal.
Though Trump is the first Republican president to acknowledge Pride month, that hasn't stopped people from pushing back. When it comes to LGBTQ rights and protections, people can't help but notice how some of the administration's policies don't seem to align with Friday's tweet.
