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LGBT groups condemn Trump's religious liberty executive order
LGBT groups condemn Trump's religious liberty executive order
9/5/17
President Donald Trump campaigned on being a "real friend" to
the gay community, but several LGBT rights organizations said the religious
liberty executive order he signed Thursday could open the doors for more
discrimination against gay Americans.
The order, signed during a
ceremony in the White House Rose Garden, directs the Internal Revenue Service
to exercise "maximum enforcement discretion" over the so-called
Johnson amendment, which prevents churches and other tax-exempt religious
organizations from endorsing or opposing political candidates. The order also
provides "regulatory relief" for organizations that object on
religious grounds to a provision in Obamacare that mandates employers provide
certain health services, including coverage for contraception.
A message left with the
White House asking what assurances the administration could offer LGBT
Americans anxious over the order was not immediately returned Thursday.
But the head of the Congressional
LGBT Equality Caucus, a group consisting of gay lawmakers and their allies,
worries that the administration will use the order to harm gay Americans.
"The LGBT Equality
Caucus will remain vigilant for any attempt to undermine the hard-fought gains
our community has made in the past decade," Executive Director Roddy Flynn
told CNN Thursday. "We plan on closely monitoring the implementation and
interpretation of the executive order."
"This administration
has attacked the rights of transgender students and programs assisting LGBT
elders," he added. "We cannot trust that this order will be narrowly
utilized to not directly harm our community. We will be watching."
Other leaders claimed the
order will allow Attorney General Jeff Sessions to use the Justice Department
to discriminate against LGBT Americans.
"Donald Trump just let
the fox into the henhouse," said Sarah Warbelow, legal director of the
Human Rights Campaign, one of the country's most influential LGBT rights
groups. "Through this executive order, Trump has directed Attorney General
Jeff Sessions -- a man who has denied LGBTQ people equality under the law -- to
seek a license to discriminate across all areas of the government."
"We are watching and we
will challenge any effort by Jeff Sessions or other agencies of Trump's
administration to license discrimination," she added.
The leadership of PFLAG
National, an LGBT organization for families, said the lives of gay Americans
could be controlled by other people's ideologies under Trump's new order.
"In signing this
so-called 'religious liberty' order, the president has essentially granted
broad permission to discriminate, and ceded enormous power to unelected
officials to interpret regulation and current law," Interim Executive
Director Elizabeth Kohm told CNN. "We are deeply concerned that rights and
protections for people from marginalized communities will be even further
subject to the whims of others' personal ideology controlling their lives, a
concept entirely antithetical to the values of freedom and dignity our nation
holds dear."
Sarah Kate Ellis, president
and CEO of GLAAD, an LGBT media organization, said the President's executive
order is a "slippery slope" toward discrimination.
"Today's Executive
Order stopped short of rampant discrimination but don't be fooled this begins a
slippery slope of a #LicenseToDiscriminate," she tweeted Thursday.
But the head of Log Cabin
Republicans, a group that represents gay conservatives, said the idea that the
executive order harms gay Americans is "total nonsense."
"Once again, stories
about a Trump 'anti-LGBT executive order' were total nonsense," Gregory T.
Angelo told CNN. "Not only is the text of the executive order completely
agnostic on LGBT-related matters, the Trump administration has now explicitly
asserted that there were not plans for a separate order that addressed LGBT
issues."
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All comments [ 5 ]
LGBT and civil rights groups should take legal action against Trump's order
Trump promised to protect the rights of religious citizens at campaign rallies but now he is turning his back on them.
the order would create a sweeping license to discriminate, permit government contractors to discriminate against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans, gut coverage for women’s healthcare, and more
it’s going to harm LGBT individuals and women and religious minorities
For a little more than 100 days, the President has stood on the side of discrimination time and again
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