Ivanka Trump and her husband helped to block an anti-LGBT executive order
Ivanka Trump and husband Jared Kushner allegedly persuaded Donald Trump to scrap an Executive Order that would have rolled back LGBT rights.
The first daughter used her position to influence her father to uphold Barack Obama’s 2014 order, which protects LGBT employees from workplace discrimination.
Ivanka’s involvement in blocking the roll back was leaked by a source to politico.
“There are some in Trump’s family that have some views on these things,” the source said. “That’s where the decision is ultimately being made.”
It is rumoured that the couple’s calming influence on Trump is waning since the order was thrown out.
If Ivanka and her husband did push for the order to be over turned, it may go against key anti-LGBT ideas of White House figures including VP Mike Pence, aide Stephen Miller and chief strategist Stephen Bannon.
The document entitled ‘Establishing a Government-wide Initiative to Respect Religious Freedom’, was rumoured to turn back years of progress for LGBT people under the Obama administration.
Claiming to protect religious freedom in every aspect of a citizen’s life, the document stated that people will be protected when receiving “social services, education, or healthcare; earning a living, seeking a job, or employing others; receiving government grants or contracts; or otherwise participating in the marketplace, the public square, or interfacing with Federal, State or local governments”.
As well as stating that marriage “is or should be recognised” as being between one man and one woman, it also states that sex before marriage is wrong.
Since the leak The White House has said that President Trump was “determined to protect the rights of all Americans, including the LGBTQ community.”
“The executive order signed in 2014, which protects employees from anti-LGBTQ workplace discrimination while working for federal contractors, will remain intact at the direction of President Donald J. Trump,” the White House said in a statement.
