Trump’s repeal of federal protections breaks his promises to LGBTQ+ citizens

President Donald Trump struck a huge blow to the LGBTQ+ community on Monday, March 27, and it has not gone unnoticed.

Despite recent promises to protect the LGBTQ+ community and not roll back President Obama’s policies on the social issue, Trump signed an order revoking protections signed into law by Obama in 2014. Obama’s original order banned LGBTQ+ discrimination in federal contractors, and right after that, he also signed an order requiring contracted businesses to prove they were complying with federal laws and executive orders.

Trump only revoked the second order, where businesses have to prove they’re complying with federal law and executive orders, but it’s still a monumental thing to do. Since federally contracted businesses can now discriminate based on LGBTQ+ affiliations or non-affiliations, it will be harder to tell whether a business is committed to being totally inclusive or whether they will discriminate against the community when hiring, firing and offering promotions.

Something ironic about Trump only revoking the second order is that he campaigned on getting rid of both orders, so no, Trump isn’t doing everything he said he’d do; he’s only doing things he thinks will go unnoticed because he’s a coward.

Another ironic moment of Trump’s is when in his nomination acceptance speech he pledged to protect the whole gay community from violence and oppression. This is ironic because he is the one oppressing the community with revoking the second order, and based on his campaign, planning to revoke the first. So where are the socially liberal but fiscally conservative people who voted for Trump who said he won’t negatively affect the LGBTQ+ community? Because it’s time for them to admit that they were wrong and own up to it.

Jared Kushner, Trump’s son in law, and his wife Ivanka Trump, Trump’s daughter, were both largely known for begging Trump not to revoke the orders. This doesn’t make them necessarily better than Trump because they still supported the Muslim ban earlier this year, which oppressed LGBTQ+ people. How? Well, the Muslim ban basically forces people from those seven countries who are LGBTQ+ to stay in a country that could kill them for coming out or simply expressing themselves, so it seems no one in the Trump family or administration has their head screwed on right. They’re only focused on oppressing people they promised to protect in the next four years to come.