Polling shows that Republicans increasingly support same-sex marriage and anti-discrimination protections for gay and transgender people. Now, liberal activists are seeking to exploit this rising tide of tolerance to take down President Trump.
The left-wing activist group Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, or GLAAD, just launched a new anti-Trump television ad campaign running on Fox News. The ad specifically targets Republican voters who care about gay people by appealing to their support for gay and transgender rights. Entitled “The Conversation,” the commercial depicts a son on a Zoom call with his conservative mother imploring her to vote against Trump if she really loves him.
Tell your family and friends the truth about Trump’s anti-LGBTQ record. Learn more at https://t.co/OgPuY24xw1 pic.twitter.com/kETmLsASYo
— GLAAD (@glaad) August 24, 2020
“Do you know that I could be evicted for being gay?” the son asks his mother. “Or turned away from the emergency room? Trump opposes the bill that would change that.” She replies, “That doesn’t sound right, son.”
“Don’t you want to be a grandma?” he asks, to which she answers, “Of course I want to be a grandma!” He responds, “[Trump] doesn’t want me to adopt. I know you like him … but I need you to understand what he’s doing to harm me.”
GLAAD President Sarah Kate Ellis said this ad is needed because of “Fox News’ track record on spreading misinformation or keeping LGBTQ issues invisible.” But her group’s ad is itself partisan propaganda chock full of disinformation.
There is zero evidence to suggest that Trump “doesn’t want gay people to adopt.” Trump has never said that gay people shouldn’t be parents and has never supported any sort of ban on gay adoption. The Trump administration does support an exception allowing religious adoption service providers to refer gay parents elsewhere if same-sex marriage violates their faith. Many agencies across the country are not religious and are happy to work with gay and transgender people. Trump has done nothing to change that, and there’s no reason to believe he ever will.
It’s deeply dishonest and cynical to scare Republican parents with gay children into thinking that Trump wants to stop them from having grandchildren. And as far as bashing Trump for not supporting the Equality Act, GLAAD completely ignores the many valid reasons to oppose that sweeping left-wing legislation.
I am gay myself, and I certainly support legal protections for gay and transgender people, but I don’t support the Equality Act. It goes too far and would crush religious liberty, infringe on the rights of private religious schools and religious medical institutions, and even people running businesses out of their homes. The proper extent of federal gay and transgender rights law is a debatable issue that good people can disagree about, not some sort of litmus test for whether you really love your gay child.
More broadly, while there are many valid criticisms to make of Trump, claiming he’s anti-gay is baseless to the point of absurdity. He’s without a doubt the most pro-gay Republican president ever and is arguably more pro-gay than any of his predecessors up until Barack Obama.
Trump is the first president in American history to enter office supportive of same-sex marriage. His administration even launched a diplomatic initiative to promote the decriminalization of homosexuality worldwide.
The president has also appointed openly gay judges and administration officials. He even made former acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell the first-ever openly gay Cabinet member. Moreover, Trump waved the rainbow flag on the 2016 campaign trail, tweeted his support for pride month last June, and just this year lauded the fact that an openly gay man such as Pete Buttigieg could run for president in America today.
We can certainly talk about areas where Trump could be better on gay issues. Yet we’re supposed to believe that Trump is “doing harm” to gay men and barring them from having children? GLAAD’s entire narrative rests on a distortion of reality.
Yes, Trump’s record on transgender issues is indeed much dicier. Critics have rightly dubbed the administration’s baseless reimposition of restrictions on transgender military service members discriminatory. If the GLAAD ad had focused on that, they at least would have had some substance to their criticisms.
But an anti-gay villain Trump is not. When left-wing activist groups like GLAAD pretend otherwise, they’re exploiting good people’s earnest sympathies for partisan gain.
Brad Polumbo (@Brad_Polumbo) is a freelance journalist and Washington Examiner contributor.
