Organizing the LGBT response to Trump

With the electoral college set to confirm President-elect Donald Trump, a number of groups are already organizing the LGBT response to Trump and his incoming anti-LGBT administration.

These responses range from getting more LGBT people elected to public office, to campaigning at the grassroots level with LPAC.

LGBT response to Trump: The Victory Fund

One organization that was caught out by last November’s elections was the Victory Institute, which operates the Victory Fund to get LGBT people elected to public office.

“Right now, we thought we’d be scurrying to fill jobs in the [Clinton] administration,” Victory Institute president Aisha Moodie-Mills told Advocate.

The past election had mixed results for the organization. Of the 135 candidates they endorsed, only 86 won– from Kate Brown, Oregon’s bisexual governor, to Carlos Guillermo Smith, an LGBT Latino in the Florida state legislature.

Trump’s victory definitely has the Victory Institute worried, given his selection of anti-LGBT supporters for his cabinet members.

“Every single person and every single policy idea that’s coming from the Trump administration has shown there is no step forward with them. I’m personally not optimistic they’re prioritizing us in any way,” she said.

Because of this, she said that the Victory Institute will have to push at the state and local levels for protection versus anti-transgender “bathroom” bills like North Carolina’s HB2, as well as “religious freedom” legislation.

They’ll also maintain focus on their core mission.

“We’re recruiting more people to run for office in states that we’re underrepresented. There are a number of states with no LGBT people in their state house at all,” Moodie-Mills said.

LGBT response to Trump: LPAC

Meanwhile, LPAC– a Super PAC organized to represent LGBTs– has come up with both tactical and strategic plans to prepare for an anti-LGBT Trump administration.

In a statement a day after the elections, Beth Shipp, LPAC executive director said: “In the days, weeks and months ahead, we will work together to fight against the anti-woman, anti-LGBT, anti-social justice forces that will (for the time being) lead this country.”

Likewise, in the coming, years, Shipp urged everyone to organize and make their voices heard.

She wrote for Lesbian News: “We must call our members of Congress to voice our concerns. When legislations arise to repeal the Affordable Care Act, we must let Washington DC know that we demand quality affordable health insurance.”

“While engaged in this work on Capitol Hill, we must also begin working on the 2017 election and the 2018 mid-terms. In 2017, Virginia and New Jersey have elections for governor and state house seats that will begin to set the stage for redistricting in 2020,” she added.

“It cannot be a time for complacency,” she said.

For more about other LGBT response to Trump, check out the latest issue of Lesbian News.