‘Bigotry-assisted suicide’: LGBT activists in horror over Trump victory

Homosexual groups are expressing horror at Donald Trump’s surprising victory and warning that it would undo the advances made by the LGBTQ movement.

Leftist homosexual activist Dan Savage tweeted: “Just sitting around watching my country commit bigotry-assisted suicide tonight.”

Eliza Byard, executive director of GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network, which promotes the acceptance of homosexuality, bisexuality and transgenderism in public schools, issued a letter to the “GLSEN Family,” which reads in part:

I won’t try to sugarcoat this: what happened yesterday is not ok. LGBTQ youth face losing the federal civil rights protections provided by the Obama administration, like the Title IX guidance. Any hope of passing federal LGBTQ-inclusive legislation in the next few years is gone. And our Supreme Court may well be packed with justices who will challenge our work to create LGBTQ-inclusive schools for decades to come.

While we can’t go back and change the outcome of this election, we will not sit silently by and watch the progress we’ve made on LGBTQ issues be destroyed.

We have seen tremendous progress in recent years, such as California’s passage of legislation requiring LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum and Michigan’s guidelines for transgender-inclusive accommodations in all schools. We have seen district and school leaders in Tennessee and Kentucky stand up for all students, even in a hostile political climate. And we have raised the profile of LGBTQ issues in education.

The ACLU vowed to sue Trump if he follows through on his campaign promises, tweeting, “Should President-elect Donald Trump attempt to implement his unconstitutional campaign promises, we'll see him in court.”

At this juncture, the ACLU lawsuit strategy focuses on areas other than LGBTQ issues, which Trump devoted little attention to in his campaign. But it does target Trump’s stated commitment to overturning abortion-on-demand. In an ACLU booklet analyzing Trump’s public statements, the leftist legal group writes: “Overturning [Roe v Wade] would undermine the legitimacy of the Supreme Court and damage the United States’ commitment to the rule of law.”

The ACLU will surely contest any effort to undo President Barack Obama’s policies advancing homosexuality and transgenderism as “civil rights,” including the Supreme Court’s 2015 Obergefell “same-sex marriage” ruling. Its well-funded branch, the ACLU Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender and AIDS Project, has played a major role in advancing the LGBTQ agenda through strategic litigation in sympathetic courts.

Unfortunately, the ACLU’s legal success has often come at the expense of faith-motivated citizens’ freedom to oppose homosexual behavior and same-sex “marriage.” An ACLU web page titled “End the Use of Religion to Discriminate”states, “Religious freedom in America means that we all have a right to our religious beliefs, but this does not give us the right to use our religion to discriminate against and impose those beliefs on others who do not share them.”

Two examples of “discrimination” listed by the ACLU show the organization is quite willing to “impose” its pro-LGBTQ beliefs on Americans of faith who do not want to participate in or approve of immoral homosexual activity:

“Graduate students, training to be social workers, refusing to counsel gay people;” [See the case of Julea Ward, a Christian who was kicked out of counseling program at Eastern Michigan University for opposing not wanting to affirm the homosexual lifestyle. EMU had informed Ward that she could only stay in its graduate counseling program if she agreed to undergo a pro-homosexual “remediation” program. She refused. After being rebuked by a Circuit Court Judge, EMU settled with Ward.]

“Bridal salons, photo studios, and reception halls closing their doors to same-sex couples planning their weddings.”

For its part, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the leading LGBTQ lobby organization — which endorsed and funded Hillary Clinton’s campaign as well as many other Democratic candidates — pledged to do battle with Trump every step of the way. Said HRC executive director Chad Griffin:

This is a crucial moment for our nation and for the LGBTQ movement. The election of a man who stands opposed to our most fundamental values has left us all stunned. There will be time to analyze the results of this election, but we cannot afford to dwell. We must meet these challenges head on.

Over the last 18 months, Donald Trump and Mike Pence have intentionally sowed fear and division for cynical political purposes. They now face a decision about whether they will also govern that way.

As LSN reported, in a previous HRC release, Griffin used Hillary Clinton’s announcement of a $500 million anti-bullying plan to demonize Trump as a man whose “rhetoric continues to foment violence and encourage division among Americans of all ages.”

Ironically, the conservative Project Veritas’ undercover videos exposed how leftist groups working directly with the Clinton campaign sent paid agitators into Trump rallies to foment violence. Their stated goal was to stoke the false narrative that Trump and his followers were violent, anti-democratic thugs.