Monday, November 14, 2016

Trump's association with religious right has possible silver lining for lgbt community


Using Trump's spotlight, lgbts can bring more attention to anti-lgbt propaganda.

Maybe it's simply the eternal optimist in me but I think that President-elect Donald Trump's association with the religious right could have a silver lining for the lgbt community.

I came to this conclusion while I was reading an excellent piece in Think Progress detailing how Family Research Council talking head - and Trump's top domestic policy advisor - holds the unscientific view of being an lgbt is a "lifestyle" that "can be changed."

That's when it dawned on me. Trump's election has swiftly done the one thing I and so many others have been attempting to do for years - put a spotlight of on these fake religious groups, their distortions about the lgbt community, and the methods they seek to curb our equality.

Don't get me wrong. I am fearful of what a Trump presidency will mean for the lgbt community, especially in the areas of transgender and marriage equality. But I also believe that if a fight in inevitable, one doesn't sit and wait for your opponent to come hammering in.

Unless I am wrong - and please correct me if I am - this is the closest religious right groups have ever worked with any president, including President Bush, to achieve their goals. That means they have a spotlight when they've never really had before.

And that also means we have the capability of controlling that spotlight and shining a bright light on every lie, every distortion, every unscrupulous action groups like the Family Research Council, the Heritage Foundation, other religious right organizations and individuals associated with them have done in the name of stopping lgbt equality.

The articles and posts that the lgbt media write about the  homophobic exploits of these groups and individual could have better chance of breaking through to mainstream coverage. And finally we can educate the public at large about the true "morality" and "values" of these groups.

Of course, this is merely a theory. But I think it's a good one. The religious right now has the power they crave to make negative changes against the lgbt community. But with that power comes more interest in what they are.

We now have a good chance to define them to America. The proverbial Sword of Damocles have moved from us to them and there is nothing wrong with us cutting the thread

Related posts:

18 Anti-Gay Groups and Their Propaganda

10 Anti-Gay Myths Debunked 

GLAAD's Commentator Accountability Project

How They See Us: Unmasking the Religious Right's War on Gay America

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I see this going down much differently than you. Republicans nominated Trump because to them he matched their ideals about how the country should be run. Except, not that he's elected, he's already going back on a lot of the promises he's made.

He's said he's not going to try to change anything regarding gay marriage (remains to be seen, of course), even if he could. That to me tells me he MIGHT try to condemn or oppose any attempt to do that.

He said all those hateful things so that the bigots would vote for him. Personally, I think the Republicans miscalculated and done f'ed up. I don't think Trump is their messiah. He's more likely their downfall. Of course, we'll just have to wait and see. I do hope I'm right.