Hillary Clinton tears into Trump over ‘deeply disturbing’ homophobic discrimination claims
Hillary Clinton has attacked Republican Presidential hopeful Donald Trump, over allegations that a gay employee at one of his golf resorts was sacked for filing complaints about homophobic bullying.
The case was brought by Eleazar Andres, a former employee at the Trump National Golf Course in New Jersey, who alleges he was frequently targeted with homophobic slurs from co-workers.
Mr Andres alleges that supervisors witnessed him being referred to as a “faggot” and “maricón”, but did nothing to stop it. The harassment turned violent during one incident, when a co-worker threw a rock at his head, hospitalising him.
According to his lawsuit, when Mr Andres complained about the homophobic bullying, he was fired.
Speaking about the case, Democratic Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton said: “It is deeply disturbing that instead of stepping in to stop the tormentors, Trump’s golf club turned on the victim for coming forward.
“If that’s how Donald Trump runs his business, what does that say about how he would run our country?”
It is her latest broadside on his LGBT rights record.
In a bid to attract support from evangelicals, Trump has claimed he would “consider” appointing ultra-conservative Supreme Court justices to repeal equal marriage, come out in favour of North Carolina’s anti-trans law, and confirmed he would sign a Republican-backed bill to directly permit religious homophobic discrimination – while his running mate Mike Pence has confirmed he would dismantle Barack Obama’s protections for LGBT people.
In a ad released this week, Clinton made a direct appeal to the LGBT community. Unlike Mr Trump, who fails to list a single pro-LGBT policy, her campaign has a broad and detailed LGBT manifesto.
She says: “We need to build an America where no one has to worry they can be married on Saturday and be fired on Monday, where kids aren’t bullied just for being who they are, where every American has the chance to live up to his or her God given potential, no matter who they are, or who they love.”
