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In the video Melania Trump made for Log Cabin Republicans just before Election Day, she insisted her husband supports gay people and blamed any perception Trump is anti-LGBTQ on the political establishment. (The image of the darkened White House was later revealed to have been taken during the Obama administration.)
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Ironically, in the aftermath of Floyd’s death, some progressives criticized President Trump on social media for his response by sharing misleading memes on social media depicting one image of the White House lit up in rainbow colors during the Obama years, and another image of the White House darkened with no lights said to be taken at a time when Trump had retreated to a bunker.
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Pride Month this year also came shortly after the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, which prompted greater social awareness for the Black Lives Matter movement and drew resources and activism LGBTQ advocates once expended on annual Pride celebrations. The decision against lighting up the White House came at a time when many leaders in the LGBTQ community made the decision to cancel Pride Month parades and celebrations amid the coronavirus pandemic in recognition of dangers to public health and the rising death toll worldwide. Neither the White House nor the first lady’s office responded to the Washington Blade’s request for comment for this article. Melania Trump ended up signaling support for the LGBTQ community months later just before the election in a video for Outspoken, the media project for Log Cabin Republicans, in contrast to Meadows, who has publicly railed against same-sex marriage and built an anti-LGBTQ record in Congress as a member of the House Freedom Caucus.
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Such a move by Trump would have symbolized a tremendous change for the Republican Party, which has a long history of animosity toward LGBTQ people. Had the first lady succeeded in lighting the White House in rainbow colors, it would have been the first time that occurred since the Obama administration lit up the building after the Supreme Court ruling for same-sex marriage in 2015. It wasn’t immediately clear whether Meadows weighed in specifically on shutting down the rainbow lighting proposal at the White House. Meadows had a significant role, one Republican source said on condition of anonymity, in ensuring the Trump White House ignored Pride Month, which is why President Trump didn’t send out a tweet to recognize the annual LGBTQ celebration as he did in 2019. (Screen capture via YouTube)įirst lady Melania Trump said she wanted to light up the White House in rainbow colors for LGBTQ Pride Month in June, but the plan never came to fruition at a time when Mark Meadows as chief of staff played a role in blocking any sign of solidarity with the LGBTQ community, according to two Republican sources familiar with her plans who spoke exclusively to the Washington Blade. At the Republican National Convention, he implicitly endorsed an anti-gay GOP platform.ABOVE: First Lady Melania Trump wanted to light up the White House in rainbow colors for LGBTQ Pride Month. Trump has hinted at support for letting businesses and individuals discriminate against LGBT people, as blogger Andy Towle notes. (For the record, his opponent, Hillary Clinton, is far more specific about her support for LGBT people, frequently addresses LGBT groups, and marched in New York City’s Pride earlier this year.)īut while these symbols are important, they don’t make up for the other ways that Trump denigrates the dignity of LGBT people.įirst there’s his zeal for restricting LGBT rights-letting states ban transgender people from using the bathroom of their gender identity, opposing the 2015 Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide, his promise to appoint judges to the Supreme Court who will reverse the ruling, or his choice of one of America’s most rabidly anti-gay politicians as his vice president. And he should be applauded for being the first GOP nominee to address LGBT people in his speeches. Certainly, Trump deserves credit for breaking symbolic barriers of associating himself with the LGBT flag.