Ivanka Trump admits her plan for family benefits excludes male gay parents
Ivanka Trump has apparently admitted that a family benefits plan she purportedly helped draw up will exclude male same-sex couples.
Ms Trump, the daughter of Republican Presidential hopeful Donald Trump, was credited as the architect of his new family policies, unveiled on Tuesday.
Trump’s ‘Family First’ plans would make child care expenses tax deductible and guarantee six weeks of paid maternity leave. However, paternity leave rights are conspicuously absent.
In a car-crash interview with Cosmopolitan, Ivanka Trump was challenged on the plan’s explicit exclusion of paternity leave, which effectively discriminates against families where one or both parents are men.
Extolling its benefits, she had claimed: “For same-sex couples as well, there’s tremendous benefit here to enabling the mother to recover after childbirth. It’s critical for the health of the mother. It’s critical for bonding with the child, and that was a top focus of this plan.”
Pushed on same-sex couples that don’t include a mother, she insisted: “So it’s meant to benefit, whether it’s in same-sex marriages as well, to benefit the mother who has given birth to the child if they have legal married status under the tax code.”
Asked specifically “what about gay couples where both partners are men?”, she demurred: “The policy is fleshed out online, so you can go see all the elements of it.
“But the original intention of the plan is to help mothers in recovery in the immediate aftermath of childbirth.”
The interviewer added: “So I just want to be clear that, for same-sex adoption, where the two parents are both men, they would not be receiving special leave for that because they don’t need to recover or anything?”
Ms Trump added: “Well, those are your words, not mine. [Laughs.] Those are your words. The plan, right now, is focusing on mothers, whether they be in same-sex marriages or not.”
As well as gay parents, her plan would discriminate against single-parent men, for instance where a mother has died in childbirth.
Throughout the rest of the interview Ms Trump appeared actively hostile.
Asked about sexist comments about pregnant women that her father had made in the past, she fumed: “I don’t know how useful it is to spend too much time with you on this if you’re going to make a comment like that.”
Just a few questions later she abruptly cut the interview short, adding: “I’m going to jump off, I have to run. I apologise.”
