As Republican candidate Donald Trump and his supporters continues to solicit the support of the LGBT community for his presidential bid, LGBT Republican supporters themselves are in disarray over whether to endorse Trump.
Recently, Trump had been pictured holding a rainbow flag with the words “LGBT for Trump” written on it after it was given to him by an audience member during a rally in Greeley, Colorado.
Because of this, Chris Barron– a former leader of the now-defunct gay group GOPRoud– had tweeted that Trump is “the most pro-LGBT pres[idential] candidate ever nominated by either party.”
However, a major LGBT Republican group is not convinced, refusing to endorse Trump as its nominee for the coming elections.
This is not surprising, given how certain policies by the Republican Party have targeted the LGBT community, such that it’s unsettled a number of LGBT Republicans.
LGBT Republican supporters withdraw support
The Log Cabin Republicans, an LGBT group that works within the Republican Party, had earlier issued a statement on their refusal to endorse Trump.
Last October 22, the Log Cabin Republicans PAC declared, “Mr. Trump is perhaps the most pro-LGBT presidential nominee in the history of the Republican Party.”
“His unprecedented overtures to the “LGBTQ community”– a first for any major-party candidate in our nation’s history– are worthy of praise, and should serve as a clarion call to the GOP that the days of needing to toe an anti-LGBT line are now a thing of the past,” the group said.
However, the group qualified this by stating: “As Mr. Trump spoke positively about the LGBT community in the United States, he concurrently surrounded himself with senior advisors with a record of opposing LGBT equality, and committed himself to supporting legislation such as the so-called “First Amendment Defense Act” that Log Cabin Republicans opposes.”
Because of this, the group said they will campaign to preserve the “GOP majorities in the United States Senate and House of Representatives” even as they “withhold endorsement from our Party’s current nominee.”
Some LGBT Republican supporters still pro-Trump
Despite their refusal to endorse Trump, the group allowed their chapters throughout the country to throw in their support for the Republican nominee on their own for this particular election.
The Log Cabin Republican chapters in Miami, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Orange County, Texas and Georgia have reportedly gone on to support Trump.
“We, as Log Cabin Republicans of Miami, we’re Americans first, we’re Republicans second, and we happen to be gay or allies of the LGBT community,” Log Cabin Republicans Miami chapter president Vincent Foster told the Washington Examiner.
“Our membership has gotten behind the Republican national nominee and it’s unfortunate that other Republicans are unable to do so,” Foster said.
“Regardless of differences, we understand that a Hillary Clinton presidency is only going to be detrimental to the LGBT community and the general American population,” he added.
With this particular news item, we figure it’s ironically apt that someone noticed how Trump was brandishing the Pride flag in an Advocate article: “He’s holding it upside down….Red on top. Only time Purple is on top is when the community is in mourning.”