During the 2004 election, President George W. Bush campaigned on banning same-sex marriage — just 10 years later, the Republican nominee is campaigning as the only candidate who can better the lives of gay Americans and protect them from radical jihadists.
Trump spoke at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, N.H. on Monday about the terror attack in Orlando and how mass immigration is endangering gays and women.
“A radical Islamic terrorist targeted the nightclub not only because he wanted to kill Americans, but in order to execute gay and lesbian citizens because of their sexual orientation,” Trump said. “It is a strike at the heart and soul of who we are as a nation. It is an assault on the ability of free people to live their lives, love who they want, and express their identity.”
The Republican nominee emphasized that while the Orlando shooter was born in America, other terrorists have come through our legal immigration system. Trump emphasized that importing millions of people from the Islamic world would negatively affect the LGBTQ community because they don’t value gay rights.
A report by Pew Research from 2013 showed that a majority of people from Muslim-majority countries believe that being homosexual is “morally wrong.”
“Hillary Clinton can never claim to be a friend of the gay community as long as she continues to support immigration policies that bring Islamic extremists to our country,” Trump said. “And who suppress women, gays, and anyone else who doesn’t share their values.”
“She can’t have it both ways,” he continued, insisting that mass immigration from countries and cultures that don’t support Western values make minorities, gays, and women less safe.
“Clinton wants Islamic radical terrorists to pour into our country. They enslave women, and they murder gays,” The Republican nominee said. “I don’t want them in our country.”
Trump’s compassionate statements that he will fight to protect gay Americans from Islamic terrorists who seek to kill and propose an immigration system that only takes in people with Western values may go a long way to appeal to the LGBT community.
His past statements in favor of transgendered people using the bathrooms of their choice and saying same-sex marriage is an issue not worth revisiting may signal it’s time for gay Americans to take a second look at voting Republican.
Watch Trump’s entire speech below:
