Billy Porter wants you to know LGBT+ voters helped bring down Donald Trump. But now it’s time to get to work
Billy Porter fronted a fundraising video for GLAAD (Getty)
Billy Porter doesn’t want anyone to forget that LGBT+ voters played a pivotal role in defeating Donald Trump.
The actor and fashion icon fronted a fundraising video for GLAAD, hailing the organisation for “leading the charge” and helping to turn out LGBT+ voters ahead of the election.
He touted GLAAD’s record of “spotlighting LGBTQ issues on the national stage” at the LGBTQ Presidential Forum ahead of the Democratic primaries, and of going into “combat mode against rapid lies and disinformation” ahead of the national election.
LGBT+ voters broke overwhelmingly for Joe Biden over Donald Trump
Hailing “the biggest LGBTQ turnout ever”, Porter added: “The election is over, but the work of GLAAD continues. Because of GLAAD, the voices and the votes of LGBTQ people and our allies were heard loud and clear at the ballot, and will continue leading the fight for equality and acceptance.”
Polling commissioned by GLAAD after the election found that 81 per cent of LGBT+ voters voted for president-elect Biden and 14 per cent for Donald Trump.
.@theebillyporter shares how GLAAD and LGBTQ voters made all the difference in the 2020 election. pic.twitter.com/ooOIMne8mw
— GLAAD (@glaad) December 28, 2020
Among first-time LGBT+ voters, 86 per cent voted for president-elect Biden, 10 per cent for Donald Trump.
Seventy-eight per cent of LGBT+ voters rated Biden excellent or good in addressing LGBT+ issues, while 80 per cent rated Trump not so good or poor.
Separate polling commissioned by Human Rights Campaign also found that LGBT+ voters broke for Biden over Trump by a wide margin, with their support proving pivotal in close states.
HRC also found that Trump’s “attacks on people of colour, immigrants and LGBTQ people” were a major push factor in driving voters to Biden, cited by 45 per cent of anti-Trump voters as one of their top three reasons to oppose him, above both “failure to protect the country from the coronavirus” and “tweeting, bullying and un-presidential behaviour”.
It’s time to get to work to undo damage, Billy Porter says
Responding to the election result last month, Porter stressed that a lot of work is ahead to undo the damage done by the Trump administration.
He told Billboard: “We need to keep the US Department of Housing and Urban Development from allowing discrimination against transgender people in HUD funded shelters, which they are actively trying to allow them to do.
“We need to make sure that the U.S, Department of Health and Human Services starts enforcing established non-discrimination protections again for LGBTQ youth in runaway and homelessness youth programs they fund across the country.”
Billy Porter doesn’t want anyone to forget that LGBT+ voters played a pivotal role in defeating Donald Trump. (Getty/Jamie McCarthy)
He continued: “I am hopeful with a Biden-Harris administration that this will be a priority, but it will take us all working together and being united with them to drive the change that has been needed for far too long.
“I don’t care which LGBTQ org you get involved with so long as we all get to work. We all need to support each other nationally and, more importantly, locally – we all need to support and get involved in our own states, in our own city government. Get informed and get to work in your own back yard.
“If we’ve learned anything from the past four years of this hellish administration is that complacency and apathy KILL. Get involved and let’s turn this around. We will not be denied our rights.”
