The Future of the LGBTQ* Movement

Current political and social developments have been built up over a certain period of time. Already in the aftermath of President Obama’s inauguration, a countermovement to the progressivism dominating domestic politics emerged. The Tea Party movement, which was mostly supported by right-wing politicians of the Republican Party, dedicated itself to the implementation of conservative goals. Originally, the Tea Party started as a grassroots movement preoccupied with heralding an economic conservatism. The politicians representing the Tea Party movement on a political level have additionally adopted a populist rhetoric that completely

191 lacked strategies to implement their goals pragmatically.³⁰² However, the Tea Party Movement is not merely aligned with economic conservatism, but has also stood for social conservatism over the course of their political activism. Politicians like Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, Marco Rubio, and Ted Cruz, who sided with the Tea Party and became the face on a federal level, hold tremendous social conservative beliefs. A Pew Research also found that Tea Party supporters tend to have very conservative opinions on social matters as well.³⁰³ Additionally, the Tea Party and the religious right are closely linked and the latter has explicit influences on views of same-sex marriage and abortion as the survey showed. The Tea Party Movement was a manifestation of the attempt to give conservatives a place of belonging, to unite them in a movement that would bring change and that would stir up the establishment. However, what the movement actually accomplished was the immense fractioning of the Republican Party.

The polarization within the political and social landscape which has been illuminated before was spread even more and additionally accompanied by the expansion of a harsh and hateful rhetoric. Especially the Tucson shooting in 2011, in which the Democratic Representative Gabrielle Giffords barely survived an assassination attempt and six other people were wounded, gave rise to criticism of the evolving hateful environment in the United States. Nevertheless, the socio-political climate even aggravated and reached its momentum during the last two years of the Obama presidency. The candidacy of Donald J. Trump has changed the political discourse. Trump, a man without any political experience, fought an election campaign that was unprecedented. His campaign as well as the nomination and election process was characterized by hate, contempt of minorities and women and the attempt to set groups against each other. The radicalism he has stirred divided the nation to a degree that has not been

302 For instances, the Tea Party Patriots organization’s major ambition is, according to their own definition, the conservation of the American Dream and the creation of the economic basis that helps to achieve it. The Tea Party Patriots have adopted a traditional, narrow agenda that concentrates on the limitation of federal power, tax cuts and “fiscal

responsibility”. More information: Tea Party Patriots, “Our Vision,” Tea Party Patriots, accessed November 11, 2016, https://www.teapartypatriots.org/ourvision/.

303 Scott Clement and John C. Green, “The Tea Party, Religion, and Social Issues,” Pew Research Center, February 23, 2011, http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1903/tea-party-m ovement-religion-social-issues-conservative-christian.

192 seen for almost half a century. Women, immigrants, African-Americans, and disabled people were humiliated and verbally harassed. Since the election of Donald Trump, minorities fear for their rights in the United States. The Republican Party was shaken as well as the American people.

Donald Trump appealed to all those who were dissatisfied with the politics of the past years. 78 percent of his supporters claimed that a continuation of the Obama politics under a potential Clinton administration would be a “bad thing”.³⁰⁴ On top of the rejection of Obama’s economic policies, Republicans and Republican leaners disproportionally do not perceive discrimination against racial minorities, immigrants, Muslims, women or LGBTQ*s. Additionally, they are also disproportionally sure that no further progress is needed in e.g. racial equality.³⁰⁵ The irrational striving for a defeat of the political establishment, for which Hillary Clinton was one of the most distinguished representatives, led to the election of a radical populist. The voters’ decision for opposing the established politicians must be associated with an insufficient knowledge of the political system. The election of the U.S. president will never bring a total change to the political system and will never extinguish the establishment because the legislative body always consists of people that are part of the so-called establishment with whom the executive branch will have to cooperate. Eventually, the laws passed and the decisions made are those approved and supported by the legislative branch – the “establishment”.

The decision-making power of the executive branch is limited but still, its rhetoric and its symbolism are influential. The cabinet which Donald Trump appointed does not only have prominence for a strong focus on economic politics it is also infamous for its conservative values and especially its anti-LGBTQ* stance as well as its ignorance regarding minority politics. Donald Trump’s cabinet does not include a single LGBTQ* ally. On the contrary – among its members are politicians that belong to the most dedicated anti-LGBTQ* politicians in the United States.

304 “Clinton, Trump Supporters Have Starkly Different Views of a Changing Nation,” Pew Research Center, August 18, 2016, accessed December 21, 2016, http://www.people- press.org/2016/08/18/clinton-trump-supporters-have-starkly-different-views-of-a-changing-nation/.

305 Ibid.

193 The Attorney General Jeff Sessions has casted votes against every single bill benefiting LGBTQ* people. He not only voted to ban same-sex marriage by an amendment to the U.S. constitution but also co-sponsored the First Amendment Defense Act that would guarantee the right to discriminate against LGBTQ*s on grounds of religious beliefs. The essence of the bill says that the act would:

Prohibit the federal government from taking discriminatory action against a person on the basis that such person believes or acts in accordance with a religious belief or moral conviction that: (1) marriage is or should be recognized as the union of one man and one woman, or (2) sexual relations are properly reserved to such a marriage.³⁰⁶

The First Amendment Defense Act would enshrine another piece of discriminatory practice into law and thereby constitute itself as part of a structure that would contribute to ostracizing LGBTQ* people. If passed by Congress, Donald Trump has already promised to sign the bill into law.³⁰⁷ Additionally, Sessions opposes the inclusion of LGBTQ* people as a vulnerable group into U.S. hate crime legislations.³⁰⁸ However, the Attorney General has to sign off on federal hate crime prosecutions, which makes it very likely that over the course of the Trump administration no crimes will be prosecuted as federal hate crimes. This weakens the fight against hate crimes and violence tremendously.

But not only the office of the Attorney General is held by a committed anti-LGBTQ* official, also Tom Price, Trump’s initial Secretary of Health and Human Services³⁰⁹, has a clear standing that opposes gay as well as transsexual rights. Price who also co-sponsors the First Amendment

306 “H.R.2802 - First Amendment Defense Act,” U.S. Congress, accessed January 15, 2017, https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/2802.

307 Donald Trump, “Issues of Importance to Catholics,” accessed January 27, 2017, https://www.donaldjtrump.com/press-releases/issues-of-importance-to-catholics.

308 “Trump’s Attorney General Pick Opposes Hate Crime Laws And Roe v. Wade,” The Huffington Post, accessed January 15, 2017, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/jeff-sessions-attorney-general_us_5874f71be4b043ad97e5bba1.

309 Price resigned in September 2017 after his trips with charter planes that cost more 400,000 USD became public.

194 Defense Act has voted against hate-crime protections and opposes same-sex marriage. While the Attorney General is essential for the protection of minority rights, the Secretary of Health and Human Services has the responsibility to ensure the funding of anti-HIV researches – a topic that is especially significant for the LGBTQ* community. Donald Trump endangered these major topics by appointing Price.

However, the number of anti-LGBTQ* politicians within the cabinet was even higher: Betsy DeVos, a billionaire who has been the chair of the Windquest Group, an investment management firm, and has been appointed Secretary of Education has previously funded organizations that are committed to restricting LGBTQ* rights.³¹⁰ Among those was the group Focus on the Family, a conservative Christian group that supports conversion therapy.³¹¹

James Mattis, the former four-star general who served in the U.S.

Marine Corps from 1969 to 2013 and was appointed as Secretary of Defense has openly opposed the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. In his confirmation hearing as Secretary of Defense, Mattis avoided any clear positioning when he was questioned by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand on his stance on LGBTQ*

people serving in the U.S. military.

Apart from the ministers that have the ability to impact LGBTQ*

rights directly, the remaining cabinet also has a strong anti-LGBTQ*

standing. Ben Carson, Rick Perry, Elaine Chao, Wilbur Ross as well as Trump’s initial Chief of Staff Reince Priebus³¹² – they all have a history of supporting anti-LGBTQ* legislations and voicing disapproval and contempt for homosexuality.

310 Benjamin Wermund and Kimberly Hefling, “Trump’s education secretary pick supported anti-gay causes,” POLITICO, November 25, 2016, accessed January 15, 2017, http://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/betsy-devos-education-secretary-civil-rights-gay-transgender-students-231837.

311 Conversion therapy rests on the belief that a person’s “abnormal” sexual orientation can be adjusted by providing psychological treatment or spiritual counseling. The result is supposed to be the conversion of a homosexual or bisexual orientation into a heterosexual one. In the past (predominantly before the 1980s), aversive treatments like electro-shock therapy or chemical castration with hormonal treatment and ice pick lobotomies were used with the intention to adjust ones sexual orientation. More on conversion therapies: Garnets, Linda and Douglas Kimmel, ed. Psychological Perspectives on Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Experiences. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002.

312 Priebus was replaced by John F. Kelly in July 2017.