Donald Trump, the most anti-gay and anti-trans president in recent history, is selling Pride t-shirts
Pride-themed t-shirt available from Donald Trump’s website (L) and Donald Trump (R) (Chip Somodevilla/Getty)
Donald Trump has taken a brief break from infringing upon the rights of LGBT+ people in the United States to release a Pride-themed t-shirt.
The president kindly put aside his efforts to roll back LGBT+ rights for a few minutes so his team could release a Pride-themed t-shirt that bears the slogan: “Make America Great Again.”
The words are written in rainbow-coloured font and are being sold in both male and female sizes, NewNowNext reported. The product description reads: “Show your support for the LGBT community and the 45th President with this exclusive Make America Great Again T-Shirt.”
The t-shirts are confusing considering Trump’s track-record on LGBT+ rights.
Donald Trump has consistently rolled back LGBT+ rights since he was elected.
In July 2017, the president announced on Twitter that he would be introducing a ban on transgender people serving in the US military “in any capacity”.
“Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail,” he added.
The trans military ban came into force in April of this year and pushed countless trans people out of the military, and likely forced many more to live in the wrong gender to keep their jobs.
Furthermore, a number of federal departments have violated the rights of LGBT+ people under the Trump administration. Earlier this year, the Department of Justice filed a brief in the lead-up to a Supreme Court hearing on anti-LGBT+ discrimination in the workplace that claimed “sex stereotyping by itself is not a Title VII violation” – essentially saying that it’s legal to fire trans workers because of their gender identity.
Show your support for the LGBT community and the 45th President with this exclusive Make America Great Again T-Shirt.
The same department later filed a brief arguing that it’s legal for employers to discriminate against staff based on sexual orientation.
Meanwhile, research shows that hate crimes – including those against LGBT+ people – have reached a decade high in the United States.
Donald Trump (Mark Wilson/Getty)
Trump’s administration has also allegedly drained HIV/AIDS funding to pay for child migrant detention, considered ways to legally erase trans people, and been linked to numerous anti-LGBT+ hate groups.
In February last year, the Trump government officially revoked guidance protecting transgender students in public schools and, in May of the same year, the president reversed rules allowing transgender prisoners to use facilities matching their gender identity.
The US president has marketed LGBT+ themed t-shirts in the past to the confusion of queer people everywhere.
There is also an epidemic of murders of trans people in the United States – particularly trans women of colour – but the Trump administration remains unbothered.
Furthermore, just last week, Trump managed to avoid mentioning LGBT+ people once in his World AIDS Day proclamation, despite the fact that the queer community is disproportionately impacted by the virus.
The Trump administration recently won some praise when they announced that they will be providing HIV-preventing drug PrEP to 200,000 people in the United States who don’t have health insurance free of charge. However, issues have since emerged, with activists suggesting that the plans fail to address other medical costs incurred in the process of obtaining PrEP that can amount to $1,000 per year.
This isn’t the first time Trump has marketed LGBT+ merchandise. Earlier this year, his website was selling a t-shirt that read: “LGBTQ for Trump.” He was widely criticised at the time for the bizarre decision.
Since then, his track record on LGBT+ rights has only gotten worse.
