While Donald Trump advertises LGBTQ Pride t-shirts on his campaign website, he’s working in the background to remove rights and protections for gay and trans people. On Friday, plans to roll back Obama-era protections for LGBTQ parents who want to adopt children were revealed in a report by Axios.
SCOOP: The Trump administration will soon make it easier for adoption agencies to reject same-sex couples, senior administration officials tell Axioshttps://t.co/sHvIaA5YBN
— Axios (@axios) May 24, 2019
The president who insisted during his campaigns that he would fight for the rights of LGBTQ citizens despite choosing one of the most notorious homophobes in government as his running mate plans to make it easier for adoption agencies to refuse service to American citizens based on their religious beliefs.
Axios reports that:
‘The Trump administration will soon make it easier for adoption agencies to reject same-sex couples, senior administration officials told Axios…President Trump is steadily rolling back Obama-era nondiscrimination policies across the entire federal government — including health care, housing and the military.’
RT @joemygod Trump To Make It Easier For Adoption Agencies To Reject Gay Parents, Part Of Obama-Era Rules Rollback https://t.co/w1r1OnRekk pic.twitter.com/1wnZBaxDdR
— bɹǝʇ ɟnɔʞ!ʇoן (@crewislife) May 24, 2019
This repeated claim that serving gay couples violates some Christian moral code is similar to claims during the Civil Rights era, when racists justified discrimination using the Bible. President Obama didn’t fall for that, but Trump is looking for evangelical votes in 2020, so necessary protections for gay and trans people, like adoption rights, housing, and medical services, are all under threat.
‘President Obama banned adoption and foster-care agencies from receiving federal funding if they refused to work with same-sex couples. Religious organizations have consistently bristled at that policy, arguing that they’re being forced to contradict their beliefs.’
??The Trump administration just announced it will roll back non-discrimination protections in the Health Care Rights Law.
This is an attack on trans people and other marginalized communities in health care.
Here’s our full statement: https://t.co/H1zr60CLUh pic.twitter.com/HoeD1nd1ln
— ACLU (@ACLU) May 24, 2019
Axios also reported that the changes would be made by the Health and Human Services Department’s Office of Civil Rights, which Trump is weaponizing against LGBTQ citizens to shill for votes. The fact that they’re willing to play along is all the more reason that Trump and Pence need to be removed from office as soon as possible.
‘The director of that office, Roger Severino, would not directly address questions about the adoption policy during a brief interview, pointing instead to other actions his office has already taken…Just this morning, OCR said it will scrap an Obama-era policy that says doctors can’t discriminate against transgender patients. (That policy had already been frozen by a federal judge.) It has also expanded health care workers’ legal right to refuse to perform services that violate their religious beliefs.’
HUD is proposing a new rule that would roll back protections for transgender homeless people, one day after Sec. Ben Carson told Congress he was "not currently anticipating" changes.
“He lied to my face,” @RepWexton tells @KateBolduan. https://t.co/L8Y21kJU3t pic.twitter.com/6XFBxxBeUC
— CNN Newsroom (@CNNnewsroom) May 24, 2019
Featured image via Flickr by Ted Eyton under a Creative Commons license
