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[Donald Trump]: “I’m against gay marriage.” (Fox News, April 14, 2011)
“It’s like in golf. A lot of people—I don’t want this to sound trivial—but a lot of people are switching to these really long putters, very unattractive. It’s weird. You see these great players with these really long putters, because they can’t sink three-footers anymore. And I hate it. I am a traditionalist. I have so many fabulous friends who happen to be gay, but I am a traditionalist.” (New York Times, May 1, 2011)
[Donald Trump]: “I think the institution of marriage should be between a man and a woman.” (The Advocate, February 15, 2000)
[Donald Trump]: “If two people dig each other, they dig each other.” (Trump University “Trump Blog,” December 22, 2005)
-- 2017 --
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February 23: Trump administration withdraws federal protections for transgender students
http://fox2now.com/2017/02/23/trump-administration-withdraws-federal-protections-for-transgender-students/
July 26: President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he plans to reinstate a ban on transgender individuals from serving "in any capacity" in the US armed forces.
"Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail."
http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/26/politics/trump-military-transgender/index.html
July 26: There are between 1,320 and 6,630 transgender individuals currently serving on active duty, about 0.05 percent of the total active force, according to a Rand Corporation analysis. Other reviews put that number as high as 15,000.
Last year the Defense Department commissioned an extensive Rand study that concluded that letting transgender people serve openly would have a “minimal impact” on both military readiness and healthcare costs.
http://www.kansascity.com/latest-news/article163704743.html
July 26: [The] 2016 study by the Rand Corporation found the maximum annual medical costs for transgender services would be around $8.4 million. By comparison, the military spent $84 million on erectile dysfunction medications Viagra and Cialis in 2014, the Military Times reported.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/26/politics/congress-transgender-policy/index.html
July 26: In 2000, when Trump publicly toyed with — and later dismissed — the idea of a presidential run that year, he was interviewed by The Advocate, an LGBT magazine.
"If a gay person can be a doctor or a lawyer or a teacher or take another position of responsibility, why can't they serve this country in the military?" Trump said.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/donald-trumps-past-statements-lgbt-rights/story?id=48858527
July 27: The Joint Chiefs of Staff, including chairman General Joseph Dunford, were not aware President Donald Trump planned to tweet a ban on transgender service members, three US defense officials told CNN -- the latest indication that top military leaders across all four service branches were blindsided by the President's announcement.
For now, Dunford has informed service members that there will be "no modifications to the current policy until the President's direction has been received by the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary has issued implementation guidelines."
http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/27/politics/trump-military-transgender-ban-joint-chiefs/?iid=ob_lockedrail_longstory_pool
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August 25: President Donald Trump on Friday formally ordered the Department of Defense to reverse a 2016 order allowing transgender individuals to serve openly in the military.
The formal policy document comes a month after Trump surprised the Pentagon when he announced in a series of July 26 tweets that he would reverse the Obama-era policy change.
http://time.com/4916871/donald-trump-transgender-military-ban/
August 25: Trump also directed the departments of Defense and Homeland Security "to determine how to address transgender individuals currently serving based on military effectiveness and lethality, unitary cohesion, budgetary constraints, applicable law, and all factors that may be relevant,"
http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/25/politics/trump-transgender-military/index.html
August 30: On Tuesday evening, USA Today published a surprising report alleging that Secretary of Defense James Mattis had frozen President Donald Trump's ban on transgender troops.
Mattis did not “freeze” the trans ban, and he is not “buy[ing] time” in some potentially insubordinate effort to buck Trump. In reality, the secretary is doing exactly what Trump directed him to do in a recent memo.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/outward/2017/08/30/mattis_did_not_freeze_trump_s_transgender_troops_ban.html
September 7: The Trump administration is backing a Colorado baker who refused to create a cake for the wedding of a same-sex couple [saying] ... "The government may not enact content-based laws commanding a speaker to engage in protected expression: An artist cannot be forced to paint, a musician cannot be forced to play, and a poet cannot be forced to write,". "It's not unusual for the federal government to file an amicus brief in such an important constitutional case" ...
http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/07/politics/justice-department-colorado-cake/index.html
September 7: The U.S. Justice Department on Thursday filed a U.S. Supreme Court brief siding with a Christian bakery owner who refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple.
Louise Melling, deputy legal director of the ACLU, said in a statement that the brief was “shocking, even for this administration. What the Trump Administration is advocating for is nothing short of a constitutional right to discriminate.”
http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/baker_who_refused_to_make_wedding_cake_for_gay_couple_is_backed_by_justice_
October 30: Judge Blocks Trump’s Ban on Transgender Troops in Military
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/30/us/military-transgender-ban.html
December 28: Trump fires all members of HIV/AIDS council without explanation
https://www.washingtonblade.com/2017/12/28/trump-fires-members-hivaids-council/
December 30: Vice President Mike Pence's neighbors hung a "Make America Gay Again" banner outside his Aspen-area residence, according to a report published on Friday.
The neighbors posted the words, which were written on a rainbow flag, on a stone pillar that sits at the end of the driveways to both homes, Pitkin County Sheriff's Deputy Michael Buglione told The Aspen Times.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/report-pences-aspen-area-neighbors-hung-make-america-gay-again-sign/ar-BBHvSfF
-- 2018 --
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January 26: Trump’s Propensity to Empower and Appoint Anti-LGBTQ Officials
This week, the U.S. Senate confirmed former Kansas Governor Sam Brownback — a well-known anti-LGBTQ apologist — as U.S. Ambassador At Large for International Religious Freedom. But Sam Brownback is hardly the only anti-LGBTQ nominee or appointment by the Trump Administration. In fact, an annual GLAAD report recently recorded its first-ever decrease in LGBTQ acceptance – and a likely contributing factor was the continued anti-LGBTQ rhetoric coming from this administration.
“Trump ran for president saying he would be a champion for the LGBTQ community, but time and time again he has attacked and demeaned our community and empowered others who do so. By appointing anti-LGBTQ officials to administration positions and lifetime appointments to our federal court system, Trump has set up an institutional shift that will continue to dehumanize LGBTQ Americans and roll back our rights for years to come,” said DNC LGBTQ Media Director Lucas Acosta.
Trump has appointed Cabinet and administration officials who believe being transgender is "a disease" and [who] "don't like gay people."
https://democrats.org/press/trumps-propensity-to-empower-and-appoint-anti-lgbtq-officials/
February 12: Trump Education Department officially won't deal with transgender student bathroom discrimination
... the Department of Education had already started telling students who submitted these complaints that the issue no longer fell within its jurisdiction, but this marks the first time an official has referenced a concrete policy change.
https://www.aol.com/article/news/2018/02/12/trump-education-department-officially-wont-deal-with-transgender-student-bathroom-discrimination/23359724/
February 26: Court: Civil Rights Law protects claims of employment discrimination based on sexual orientation
A federal appeals court in New York ruled on Monday that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a federal law that bans employment discrimination because of sex, also protects claims of discrimination based on sexual orientation.
"Sexual orientation discrimination is a subset of sex discrimination because sexual orientation is defined by one's sex in relation to the sex of those to whom one is attracted," a 10-3 opinion issued by the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals stated.
