Rumours of Trump’s anti-LGBT executive order slammed as ‘deeply troubling’
The Human Rights Campaign has responded to rumours that President Trump may sign an anti-LGBT executive order saying they are “deeply troubling”.
The rumours come as the Trump administration has failed to give a definitive answer on the future of LGBT provisions put in place by the Obama administration.
Sean Spicer, Trump’s press secretary was asked today about the rumours, and declined to comment.
He said: “I’m not getting ahead of the executive orders that we may or may not issue.”
Adding: “There’s a lot of executive orders, a lot of things the president has talked about and will continue to fulfil but we have nothing on that front now.”
JoDee Winterhof, the Human Rights Campaign’s Senior Vice President for Policy and Political Affairs responded to say the rumours are “deeply troubling”
Saying: “The rumours of an anti-LGBTQ executive action by President Trump are deeply troubling. We already know that he is willing to target and marginalize at-risk communities for his perceived political gain. As the President and his team plan their next steps, we want to make one thing clear: we won’t give one inch when it comes to defending equality, whether it is a full-on frontal assault or an attack under the guise of religion. Mike Pence should know that better than anyone given his track record in Indiana.
“The Human Rights Campaign will stand with those who have already been targeted by this Administration and are prepared to fight tooth and nail against every effort to discriminate.”
The press secretary for the Trump administration last week said he “doesn’t know” whether the new President will repeal discrimination protections for LGBT people.
Spicer a week ago responded to a question from the Washington Blade in a press briefing, saying: “I just don’t know the answer.”
The 2014 protections were introduced by President Obama in an order which banned federal contractors to discriminate based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
Also in 2014, Obama added protections for trans individuals to a nondiscrimination order which applied to employees of the federal government.
Despite years of campaigning there is currently no federal law banning discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Efforts to pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) and the Equality Act with no success.
As Donald Trump and Mike Pence were sworn in today, a mostly-seamless transition took place online, with the new administration taking control of the official Presidential media channels.
But amid the exchanges of Twitter account handles and Facebook profiles, the official White House website has also been relaunched reflecting the new administration’s agenda.
The new President has never released a policy plan on LGBT issues, and also has no policy plan on HIV/AIDS. He failed to detail policies on either issue during his election campaign.
One of the new President’s only direct policy pledges it to sign the Republican-backed First Amendment Defence Act, a law that would permit forms of anti-LGBT discrimination on the grounds of religion.
