by HRC Staff •
WASHINGTON -- The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) civil rights organization, today released a new micrositeblasting Donald Trump and Mike Pence for their anti-equality records. Launching on the day Trump is expected to accept his party’s presidential nomination at the Republican National Convention, HRC will promote the site via social media to its 3.35 million followers.
“It’s time for anyone and everyone who has an LGBTQ person in their lives to ‘Dump Trump,’” said HRC Communications Director Jay Brown. “At every opportunity, Donald Trump has maligned, attacked and belittled anybody he considers different. He’s also vowed to reverse nationwide marriage equality, supported Kim Davis-style discrimination and endorsed laws attacking transgender people. There’s no doubt, Donald Trump is a serious threat to all the progress we have made in the last eight years. ”
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.
Trump’s record on LGBTQ equality stands in stark contrast with presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, who stands with the LGBTQ community, pledging to protect our hard-fought gains and proposing the most robust pro-LGBTQ equality agenda of anyone running for president.
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 the measure. 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 that75 percent of Hoosiers said the debate was bad for the state’s economy and 70 percent of those surveyed said they opposed the law.
Trump’s false claims about his own support are belied by his own long record of opposing LGBTQ equality. This week, his speakers at the Republican National Convention have launched a slew of attacks on LGBTQ people. Watch retired U.S. Army Lieutenant General Michael Flynn’s vile attack on transgender people during his speech Monday. Meanwhile, former GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson, speaking at the Florida delegation breakfast, compared transgender people to someone who “woke up tomorrow morning after seeing a movie about Afghanistan and saying ‘you know what? I’m Afghanistani [sic].”
Here’s a sampling of how Donald Trump has been threatening 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 Obergefell ruling;
· Vowed to sign the so-called “First Amendment Defense Act,” which could 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 and Indiana’s Mike Pence when they write discrimination into state law;
· 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.
Visit www.hrc.org/dumptrump to learn more about why Donald Trump is unfit for the presidency.
The Human Rights Campaign is America’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer equality. HRC envisions a world where LGBTQ people are embraced as full members of society at home, at work and in every community.
Paid for by Human Rights Campaign Equality Votes and not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. |
To make a general inquiry, please visit our contact page. Members of the media can reach our press office at: (202) 572-8968 or email press@hrc.org.
Image:
100% of every HRC merchandise purchase fuels the fight for equality.