Yeah, well, twenty states have been able to block women from being declared first-class citizens, and mainly on the basis of fears about restroom problems, as I recall.
Fears about restrooms really do seem to preoccupy Americans. What a source of pride for us!
ETA: The twenty-nine (maybe 30, depending on Michigan) Trump-voting states might vote ‘hate’ if Trump sold it well enough. And the twenty Clinton states aren’t necessarily all bastions of progressivism (though some are).
Anyway, I’m not intending, here, to get a prediction engraved in stone. I’m just saying that nothing should be taken for granted, rights-wise.
With Pence & Huckabee (socially, far more dangerous than Trump himself) now actually elected & appointed to positions of real power, we need a new word for our overlords.
Thriskóliptocracy
From θρησκόληπτος
Just a reminder:
His VP instituted policies very harmful to gay people, and many of his advisors have as well. He’s also praised SCOTUS justices who are opposed to gay rights and promised to nominate similar judges. I hope to be surprised, but based on everything but occasional superficial rhetoric like your link, he will be very harmful to LGBTQ Americans.
Transgender rights going forward look pretty grim. If we took 10 steps forward under the Obama Administration, we’re going to be taking 5 steps back IMO. That’s better than 10, or 20, but it sucks for a lot of my people.
I’m really scared on behalf of so many in my community.
The first thing to fall will be transgender student protections, definitely within the first 100 days. The next thing will be a “slowdown” of integration of transgender persons in the armed forces, and then I predict the following:
Removal of any transgender accommodations under the ACA.
Tightening of health coverage in the VA for transgender veterans (although this could blow up if not done very subtly).
A new direction for the EEOC, ending their campaign to protect transgender workers. I don’t think they’ll become hostile, they’ll just drop their effort to focus on us.
Ending allowing transgender persons to claim asylum due to persecution over their gender identity or expression.
Much greater scrutiny over transgender persons coming in under K1 visas.
Ending of the mandate that government contractors must protect transgender employees.
The FBI and Justice Departments will no longer focus on gender-identity and gender-expression based hate crimes and violence.
I’m uncertain about Social Security and Passport documentation requirements. I’ve never really heard any big fuss made by conservatives towards those issues.
There are a host of horrible demands on the far Right, including such things as a national “bathroom protection act,” a “sexual purity” act which would make it a criminal offense of rape to engage in sexual relations with someone and not disclose your transgender history, classifying hormones under the same schedule that cocaine and heroin are, banning surgery, religious exemptions for virtually anything, etc. The sort of things that our favorite little monster on this message board is probably getting an erection over just thinking about. None of those will come to pass, although I’m certain the deplorables who inhabit the comments sections of newspapers and other media will be bringing them up increasingly.
What I wonder is what all the “reasonable conservatives” who support Trump but also claim they have “nothin’ against” or even “support” transgender persons will say as these dominoes fall? “Oh, that’s not a big deal?” “Sucks to be you, but look at how much better we are without taco trucks on every corner…?”
So Trump holds up an LGBTQ flag. Sadly, one can’t rely on that. He has consistently used an “I never said that/I never did that” response when challenged on his statements and acts that are recorded and available for scrutiny. He’s using a *1984 *strategy.
Trump’s flag stunt was a filthy bit of tenth-hearted camera mugging that was insulting to watch, given his choice of VP and, as we’ve seen, his choice of top officials and advisors.
I believe Trump will enter into a tacit bargain with the social right-wing. Trump will look the other way while Pence and his wing gut abortion rights state by state, and roll back gay rights…
While Pence and co. will look the other way while Trump and his lads loot the treasury via corruption and funneling money and contracts to his family business and friends. (ie Infrastructure! A trillion dollars worth!)
It’s win-win for all of the Despicables!
I don’t think I am going to change anyone’s minds here. The best I can do is to say, give it a year and then we can revisit the issue.
Two things I want to get in before I bookmark the thread and set the one year reminder. First, about Mike Pence, let me repeat something I said in another thread: I’m not happy that he will be Vice President, I don’t like his views on the social issues.
But I can’t help but think of Teddy Roosevelt. A lot of machine bosses who hated him actually wanted him kicked upstairs to the irrelevancy, the "bucket of warm spit, that is the Vice Presidency to him out of their hair, effectively neutering him.
And yes, I know, it didn’t work out well for them. But going by the odds, it was a good bet. Even better today with our much more advanced medical care.
And as to the reason Trump chose him, there is this thing called “ticket-balancing”. It’s fallen out of favor lately…Obama didn’t do it, or George W., or Bill Clinton. But I swear, it used to be a big deal. Look up who Ronald Reagan promised to make his running mate if he had won the nomination in 1976.
Second, I am going to say that I think Schwarzenegger’s run as California governor is the best model we have for the upcoming Trump presidency, and that the campaign persona was just that, a persona. In support of that theory, see here.