We’ve looked at “Evangelicals For Trump,” “Pro-Life Voices For Trump,” “Black Voices For Trump,” and Veterans For Trump.” What we have found is that all of these coalitions, purportedly bound together by a shared identity and/or affinity, are in fact also bound together by their outspoken advocacy against LGBTQ equality.
Today, let’s do it again. This time we will look at “Women For Trump,” a coalition whose advisory board is not only connected by its willingness to overlook the truly shocking behavioral patterns the current occupant of the White House has shown toward women throughout his career, but also by its anti-LGBTQ views. Here are just some of the key members:
- Pam Bondi: Fought aggressively against marriage equality while serving as Attorney General of Florida, arguing in court that it would “impose significant public harm” on citizens of the Sunshine State.
- Deneen Borelli: Said President Obama “threw blacks under the bus” and “seemed to side with the gay lobby over black moral values” when he came out for marriage equality.
- Stacey Dash: Insisted transgender people must pee in bushes so as to not endanger her child: “OK, then go in the bushes. I don’t know what to tell you, but I’m not gonna put my child’s life at risk because you want to change a law. So that you can be comfortable with your beliefs — which means I have to change my beliefs and my rights? No.”
- Madison Gesiotto: Insisted that transgender bathroom access opens a “Pandora’s Box of peril for women and young girls,” and promoted an article that claims the LGBTQ movement is working to normalize and incorporate pedophilia.
- Dr. Gina Loudon: So anti-LGBTQ that she served as a fill-in host for Bryan Fischer, probably the most notoriously hostile radio host in the nation. While filling in for Fischer, Loudon once connected marriage equality to someone wanting to marry a dog or marry a child (around 6:50 mark). She also promotes so-called “conversion therapy”, opposed the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, and accuses LGBTQ activists of “indoctrination and intimidation of our children.”
- Gov. Jan Brewer: In addition to staunchly opposing both marriage equality and civil unions as governor of Arizona, she fought for years to strip domestic partners of previously granted benefits.
- Carrie Prejean: Became a household name solely for her outspoken resistance to marriage equality; followed up on this notoriety with continued anti-LGBTQ advocacy, writing a book defending her opposition to LGBTQ rights, and most recently going after the “intolerant left” for not supporting a homophobic “Straight Pride Parade.”
- Danielle D’Souza Gill: Wrote a book in which she linked homosexuality to pedophilia, bestilaity, incest, and adultery, portraying all as “just one of the many sexual freedoms people are pushing for today.” She went on to insist that sex must remain only between a marital union of one male and one female.
- Diamond & Silk: Have crudely condemned transgender bathroom access: “If yo’ stitch don’t have a slit, then it’s not equipped to use a women’s bathroom…As long as you got them balls, you need to put your hands on the wall and use that stall.”
- Jessie Jane Duff: Has aggressively advocated for the Trump administration’s ban on transgender soliders.
- Becki Falwell: Suggested transgender people are making a choice contrary to God’s will: “She’s our granddaughter, and we’re raising her as a girl. We’re not letting her have a choice. God makes the choice of what the babies are going to be and God decided she would be a girl.”
- Cissie Graham Lynch: Insists LGBTQ people “have been blinded by the lies of the world to believe what they’re doing is OK,” adding that “We have to take a bold stand against what Satan is using to destroy a generation.”
- Kaya Jones: Opposes inclusive teaching, tweeting, “Don’t push sexuality on children. I don’t know any straight person pushing straight curriculum on children so why push Lesbian, Gay, Bi, or Transgender on a child?” I also an outspoken opponent of transgender people, recently suggesting that parents of trans kids have “Munchausen by proxy.”
- Alveda King: Has linked marriage equality to “genocide.”
- Meshawn Maddock: Helped craft the 2016 GOP platform and its opposition to marriage equality, and criticized the “determined and manipulative LGBT delegates” that tried to make it more inclusive.
- Penny Nance: Longtime anti-LGBTQ activist who insists LGBTQ people are trying to “infiltrate” schools, calls marriage equality “counterfeit money,” and advocates for the Trump administration’s transgender ban.
- Chonda Pierce: Encouraged fans to boycott Target over its restroom policy for “gender confused people,” writing that “Target has opened the door to every pedophile and pervert out there.”
- Nancy Schulze: Signed a petition opposing the Equality Act because it would be the “very demise of women’s sports as we know it today by confusing ‘gender identity’ with biological sex in federal law.”
- Rose Tennent: Suggested LGBTQ activists want to destroy marriage because “they break that down and they’ve broken down society.”
- Julianne Thompson: Lobbied for a so-called “religious freedom” bill in Georgia that would allow businesses to discriminate against LGBTQ people, then threatened to boycott companies that stood against it.
Statistically, women have long been more supportive of LGBTQ rights than men. Not so in Trump world. Just like with the other coalitions, the Trump campaign has a population sample that is vastly out of step with the mainstream. These are not Trump-supportive women who happen to be anti-LGBTQ–these are anti-LGBTQ activists who happen to be women.
It’s enough to make one forget that perhaps the most visible Woman For Trump, daughter Ivanka, manages to tweet out a “Happy Pride!” once every few summers.
Jeremy Hooper is a longtime researcher and strategist, with a particular focus on the anti-LGBTQ religious right. His work has been featured in press outlets across the globe, and has been used by numerous political campaigns. From 2004 to 2015 he ran the popular blog Good As You, and wrote a well-received book on his own LGBTQ rights journey. He lives in NYC with his husband and daughter.