On MSNBC, LGBTQ activist Brandon Wolf debunks the right-wing myth that Donald Trump is pro-LGBTQ
Wolf: “We have an amateur fascist in the White House who has LGBTQ folks squarely in his crosshairs”
Written by Alex Paterson
Published
During an MSNBC panel on queer and trans voters, Brandon Wolf -- an LGBTQ activist and survivor of the 2016 shooting at the Pulse nightclub -- debunked what he called a “totally delusional” lie that President Donald Trump supports LGBTQ Americans.
On August 19, gay conservative group the Log Cabin Republicans posted a video of former acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell making the absurd claim that Trump is “the most pro-gay president in American history.” The following day, Grenell joined the Republican National Committee as a senior adviser focusing on LGBTQ outreach despite the RNC’s explicitly anti-LGBTQ platform. Fox News has since hosted Grenell in two segments in which he whitewashed Trump and the Republican Party’s extreme anti-LGBTQ record.
During the August 23 segment on AM Joy -- which also featured Democratic strategist Aisha C. Mills and The 19th’s LGBTQ+ reporter Kate Sosin -- guest host Jonathan Capehart asked Wolf about Grenell’s statement. Wolf called it “hot garbage” and “totally delusional,” citing the Trump-Pence administration’s countless discriminatory policies, including banning trans people from the military and trying to legalize discrimination against LGBTQ people by health care providers and child welfare agencies. He also noted, “We don't have to believe Richard Grenell on how Donald Trump will treat LGBTQ Americans. We already know because we've seen the policies in action.”
Citation From the August 23, 2020, edition of MSNBC’s AM Joy
JONATHAN CAPEHART (GUEST HOST): Brandon, President Trump retweeted a tweet from Richard Grenell, who was the chair of the Log Cabin Republicans, and you can see it there on the screen, “President Trump made history for LGBT Americans -- and nobody knows that better than Ric Grenell.” This is from the Log Cabin Republicans, but he also -- Grenell has called President Trump “the most pro-gay president in American history.” Brandon?
BRANDON WOLF (LGBTQ ACTIVIST, PULSE SURVIVOR): It's hot garbage. I mean, it’s totally delusional. You don't get to be an ally of the LGBTQ community and leave large chunks of the community out. What I know is this, and Aisha said it perfectly, we don't have to guess what kind of president Donald Trump is for LGBTQ Americans. We don't have to believe Richard Grenell on how Donald Trump will treat LGBTQ Americans. We already know because we've seen the policies in action.
This is a president who fired thousands of transgender people who made the incredible sacrifice of serving in the U.S. military. This is a president who kicked transgender people out of homeless shelters and argued that said same-sex couples should be barred from adopting children. This is a president who just two months ago, on the four-year remembrance of the shooting at Pulse nightclub, tried to rip nondiscrimination protections away from LGBTQ folks going to see a doctor. Donald Trump has been at war with the LGBTQ community from the day he set foot in office.
So, to Aisha's point, there really is no choice here. There is no binary. There is no decision to engage or disengage. We have an amateur fascist in the White House who has LGBTQ folks squarely in his crosshairs, and our fight today is to wrestle the country back out of his greedy, corrupt hands on November 3, because, quite frankly, there may be no democracy left once he's done with it.