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Log Cabin Republicans Lose Top Officials Over Trump Endorsement

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Log Cabin Republicans endorsed Trump for re-election last week. Since the endorsement was announced, their executive director and multiple board members have resigned.

After less than a year at the helm, the Executive Director of the Log Cabin Republicans has resigned over the organization’s widely-condemned re-election endorsement of President Donald Trump. Two of the gay GOP group’s board members penned a highly-controversial and frequently false Washington Post op-ed, claiming the president has “met his commitments to LGBTQ Americans.”

LCR executive director Jerri Ann Henry resigned Friday, The Washington Blade’s Chris Johnson reported in an exclusive on Tuesday.

Henry’s “voice had been effectively sidelined for about two months,” the Blade reports in another revelation. “Sources say disagreements about the direction of Log Cabin — with some wanting to pursue pro-LGBT policy goals, while others wanted to support Trump — led to a decision to prohibit Henry from speaking publicly for the group.”

The Blade also reports that LCR board member Rachel Hoff also had resigned after the Washington Post op-ed/endorsement was published, news not previously reported.

Board member Jennifer Horn also submitted her resignation after the op-ed.

Log Cabin spokesperson Charles Moran says the organization chose to endorse Trump’s re-election after surveying chapters and finding “almost unanimous” support for the organization to back the president’s re-election.

Log Cabin’s Washington Post op-ed supporting the president came in the same week the Trump administration led a blistering attack on the civil rights of LGBTQ people.

Just days earlier Trump’s Dept. of Justice was caught attempting to strong-arm the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) into reversing years of findings and rulings, and declare before the U.S. Supreme Court that discrimination against LGBTQ workers is legal.

That same week Trump’s Dept. of Labor announced a new rule to make it easier for what it now calls “religion-exercising organizations” that are also federal contractors to discriminate against LGBTQ workers. Not only would the Dept. of Labor make it easier, it would offer them a roadmap on how to avoid being charged with discrimination.

And just hours after the op-ed was published the Trump administration’s DOJ formally asked the U.S. Supreme Court to declare discrimination against transgender workers totally legal. One week later the Trump administration petitioned the nation’s top court to declare discrimination against gay, lesbian, and bisexual workers also totally legal, claiming none are protected under the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Written by David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement. Photo: Jerri Ann Henry, via NCRM

Trump DOJ Tells Supreme Court It Is Legal To Fire Transgender Workers

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The legal brief filed by Trump’s Department of Justice is the most overt step his administration has taken thus far to legalize anti-trans discrimination in the workplace.

Last Friday, the Trump administration informed the U.S. Supreme Court it is the opinion of the Dept. of Justice that it is legal under federal law for employers to fire transgender workers merely for being transgender.

The DOJ’s brief states Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, does not apply to transgender workers.

In reporting the development Buzzfeed calls it one of the Trump administration’s “most agressive steps yet to legalize anti-transgender discrimination.”

Friday’s move comes just days after the DOJ attempted to strong-arm the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission into telling the Supreme Court discrimination on the basis of gender identity is not sex discrimination. To do so would have contradicted up to eight years of EEOC findings and rulings.

Written by David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement. Image via NCRM

Ignoring Many Instances of Discrimination, Log Cabin Republicans Endorse Trump

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The group of gay Republicans didn’t even endorse Trump four years ago, but his administration’s lengthy record of anti-LGBTQ actions didn’t stop them from endorsing him this time.

Last Thursday, the Log Cabin Republicans shocked the entire United States with a Washington Post op-ed endorsing Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election. And now Trump himself is using the endorsement as a shield from criticism.

In their rather mindblowing op-ed, Log Cabin Republicans chair Robert Kabel and vice chair Jill Holman wrote, “To be treated equally, fairly and justly under the law is our goal, and we know that ‘Inclusion Wins’ is a mantra we share with the president.”

The Log Cabin Republicans endorsement is particularly surprising in light of the fact that the group did not endorse Trump in 2016. The group made that decision based on the fact that Trump had never met with them, then a necessary step to receive their support. Trump has still not met with the Log Cabin Republicans; however, they’ve now chosen to endorse him anyway.

Their reasoning is laid out by Kabel and Holman in the op-ed as follows: “This is the party that Trump has helped make possible by moving past the culture wars that dominated the 1990s and early 2000s, in particular by removing gay rights as a wedge issue from the old Republican playbook.”

The group points to the Trump administration initiative to decriminalize homosexuality worldwide, the appointment of openly gay diplomat Richard Grenell as ambassador to Germany, and the administration’s stated intent to end the HIV epidemic by 2030 as reasons to believe that Trump and his administration have moved beyond using “gay rights as a wedge issue.”

However, the Trump administration has taken a variety of other anti-LGBTQ actions since Trump’s election three years ago, from the erosion of Civil Rights Act protections previously afforded to LGBTQ people under the Obama administration to the many gestures they’ve made toward privileging “religious freedom” over LGBTQ people’s rights to things like housing, employment, and even medical care.

There’s also the trans military ban, of course, and Kabel and Holman do mention the Log Cabin Republicans’ continued objection to that obviously anti-LGBTQ measure. “We are committed to letting all qualified Americans serve in the military, and Log Cabin Republicans was a leader in the legal fight to end the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy,” Kabel and Holman write. “We oppose the transgender service restriction and will continue to press the administration to reconsider.”

However, the endorsement stands, despite all of the obvious anti-LGBTQ actions Trump has taken. Log Cabin Republicans spokesperson Charles Moran told the Washington Blade that this was because they’re just so excited to be able to support an incumbent Republican who hasn’t voted against marriage equality. “We’ve not had a second term Republican president that Log Cabin has had the opportunity to endorse in quite some time,” Moran said. “2004 was the last time and we declined to endorse President Bush for re-election due to the constitutional ban on gay marriage he made a centerpiece of the campaign. So we really don’t have any [precedent] for a re-election to follow.”

Now, of course, Trump himself has picked up on this endorsement. He used it in a press conference yesterday to dodge a pointed question about anti-LGBTQ discrimination in the workplace, and actions his administration has taken to enable such discrimination. “Well I just got an award and an endorsement from a group… the exact group,” Trump said in response, as seen in a video posted to Twitter by Vox reporter Aaron Rupar.

“The Log Cabin group,” Trump continued. “And I was very honored to receive it. I’ve done very well with that community. Some of my biggest supporters are of that community, and I talk to them a lot about it… Peter Thiel and so many others, they’re with me all the way, and they like the job I’m doing.”

So now, not only have the Log Cabin Republicans chosen to ignore a vast amount of discrimination that affects them and the community they represent, they’ve given Trump himself an easy go-to defense for his discriminatory actions. And now we can no doubt expect to hear about this endorsement over and over throughout the 2020 campaign.

Please, can we get this guy out of here already?

Image via Screencap from Aaron Rupar/Twitter

Rights Activists Alarmed as Pompeo Installs Anti-Gay Anti-Abortion Activist to Head New Commission on “Natural Law”

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Pompeo hopes to redefine the entire concept of “human rights,” and to do so he’s hired a woman with a decades-long record of anti-LGBTQ activism.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday announced the formation of a new commission that will take a “fresh look” at human rights through the lens of “natural law,” and civil and human rights advocates are outraged. In preliminary filings the State Dept. noted the Commission will explore “our nation’s founding principles of natural law and natural rights.”

“Natural law,” is religious right wing extremist code for anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ rights, especially marriage for same-sex couples.

Critics are outraged.

The director of the ACLU’s Human Rights Program weighed in:

Secretary Pompeo, a known right wing Christian extremist in his own right, has named Mary Ann Glendon, a professor who is also his former mentor, to lead the “Commission on Unalienable Rights.”

Glendon is an anti-abortion, anti-gay Catholic activist who served as U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See (the Vatican) under President George W. Bush. She is also known for her opposition to the use of condoms to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS.

“I hope that the commission will revisit the most basic of questions: What does it mean to claim something is, in fact, a human right?” Pompeo told reporters Monday, adding, as Yahoo News notes, that “words like rights can be used for good or evil.”

Glendon should understand Pompeo’s remarks. She penned a 2004 op-ed supporting a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. In a unique twist of language she claimed the amendment “should be welcomed by all Americans who are concerned about equality and preserving democratic decision-making.”

And in a shocking move Glendon chastised the awarding of a Pulitzer Prize to the Boston Globe for its work exposing pedophile priests. She reportedly said, “If fairness & accuracy have anything to do with it, awarding the Pulitzer to the Boston Globe would be like giving the Nobel Peace Prize to Osama bin Laden.”

Anti-gay hate group leader Tony Perkins was briefed on the Commission before it was officially announced, CBS News reports.

A State Dept. official says the Commission is a “personal project” of Secretary Pompeo’s, and Politico reports the Commission “was conceived with almost no input from the State Department’s human rights bureau, people familiar with the matter say, effectively sidelining career government experts who have focused on human rights policy and history across numerous administrations.”

As extreme as Glendon is, the preliminary proposed Chair was Robert P. George, a Princeton professor who co-founded the extremely anti-gay National Organization For Marriage (NOM).

Meanwhile, Amnesty International issued a scathing rebuke to Pompeo and his new Commission. In “Trump Administration Commission on Unalienable Rights Politicizes Human Rights for Hate,” the human rights organization’s national director of advocacy and government affairs, Joanne Lin, said:

“This administration has actively worked to deny and take away long-standing human rights protections since Trump’s inauguration. If this administration truly wanted to support people’s rights, it would use the global framework that’s already in place. Instead, it wants to undermine rights for individuals, as well as the responsibilities of governments.”

“This approach only encourages other countries to adopt a disregard for basic human rights standards and risks weakening international, as well as regional frameworks, placing the rights of millions of people around the world in jeopardy.”

“International agreements, like the Universal Declaration for Human Rights, have been upheld by prior administrations over the last 71 years, regardless of their party. This politicization of human rights in order to, what appears to be an attempt to further hateful policies aimed at women and LGBTQ people, is shameful.”

Written by David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement. Image via NCRM

Senate Republicans Just Gave a Lifetime Appointment to One of the Most Anti-LGBTQ Judges Trump Has Ever Nominated

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He thinks transgender people are “delusional.”

He sees the fight for LGBTQ equality as a “clash of absolutes” where “religious liberty and sexual liberty” are forever at odds.

He says the Equality Act, which would add sexual orientation and gender identity to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, is “weaponizing” the Supreme Court Obergefell marriage ruling against Christians.

He’s said that “preventing sexual orientation-based discrimination cannot justify serious burdens on…constitutionally protected religious freedom.”

He works for an anti-LGBTQ legal group that seeks to defend Christians against  perceived religious discrimination. Among their clients have been Christian bakers Melissa and Aaron Klein of Sweetcakes by Melissa.

And on Wednesday Republicans in the U.S. Senate voted 52-46 to give him a lifetime appointment to the federal bench.

Matthew Kacsmaryk of the very anti-LGBTQ First Liberty Institute will soon be U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk for the Northern District of Texas.

All Democrats and one just one Republican, Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) voted against Kacsmaryk’s confirmation, as The Washington Blade reports.

Kacsmaryk is opposed by hundreds of LGBTQ and civil rights groups. The Leadership Conference, a coalition of more than 200 national organizations calls Kacsmaryk “a right-wing extremist who has made a career out of dehumanizing LGBTQ people, debasing women, and assailing health care rights. He has expressed staunch opposition to the Equality Act, marriage equality, and promoted the dangerous lie that being transgender is a ’delusion.’ He has attacked Roe v. Wade and challenged the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive access.”

Lambda Legal is part of a 75-group coalition that also opposes Kacsmaryk, saying in a letter to Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham and Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein. The group notes that Kacsmaryk defended Melissa Klein of Sweetcakes by Melissa, and argued that “preventing sexual orientation-based discrimination cannot justify serious burdens on…constitutionally protected religious freedom.”

The Alliance for Justice published a six-page report on Kacsmaryk, concluding “Kacsmaryk has built his legal career opposing equal rights for millions of his fellow citizens. His harsh and demeaning rhetoric regarding LGBTQ rights and reproductive rights sends a clear message that he has little regard for established legal precedent in this area. Kacsmaryk often couches his opposition to equal rights in religious language.”

The AFJ added, “Kacsmaryk’s statements demonstrate beliefs that discrimination against LGBTQ Americans is valid and should be condoned.”

Written by David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement. Photo via NCRM.

State Dept. Quietly Creates Commission Focused on ‘Fresh Thinking’ About ‘Natural Rights’ – Code for Anti-LGBTQ

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The U.S. State Dept. on Thursday quietly published a notice in the Federal Registerannouncing it creating a new commission to provide “fresh thinking” about “natural law and natural rights,” which is the religious right’s code for anti-LGBTQ.

The “Commission on Unalienable Rights” will “provide fresh thinking about human rights discourse where such discourse has departed from our nation’s founding principles of natural law and natural rights,” the notice states.

Politico reports human rights activists are “surprised,” and “privately said they worry that talk of the ‘nation’s founding principles’ and ‘natural law’ are coded signals of plans to focus less on protecting women and LGBT people.”

In fact, Christian extremists, anti-gay hate groups, and other factions of the religious right often argue against LGBTQ civil rights, including same-sex marriage, as violations of “natural law.”

The newly-formed Commission on Unalienable Rights will directly advise Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. It appears it may be headed by his Director of Policy Planning, Kiron Skinner, whose name appears at the bottom of the notice.

Pompeo is a far right religious extremist who has openly stated the function of politics is to “fight these battles” because there is a “never-ending struggle” until “the rapture,” as The New York Times has reported. He has also said the Bible “informs everything I do.”

Skinner is a highly-accomplished and noted scholar who recently caused an international stir. Professor Skinner at a public forum on national security told attendees that America’s upcoming competition with China would be especially bitter, as Foreign Policy reported, because, she said, “it’s the first time that we will have a great-power competitor that is not Caucasian.”

The Trump administration has a horrific record on human rights here in the U.S. and internationally. At home, Trump has now rolled back or rescinded every protection for transgender people codified under President Barack Obama, including but not limited to evicting transgender Americans from the U.S. Armed Forces. He and has administration are working to remove hard-won protections across the board for LGBTQ people and women. Internationally, the President repeatedly praises and protects dictators who are responsible for the murder of their own people. Just one example: Trump’s claim that he and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un “fell in love.”

But Trump has also prioritized defending, promoting, and even creating special rights for Christian conservatives over U.S. law and over decades of U.S. foreign policy.

The Commission on Unalienable Rights appears to be the next step in the process.

Written by David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement. Image by U.S. Dept. of State via Flickr