Thom Senzee, author of this article, is a West Coast-based freelance journalist, and a regular contributor to San Diego LGBT Weekly.
“The gays love …” President-Elect Donald Trump, or so the man himself unabashedly proclaimed following the tragedy at Orlando’s Pulse nightclub in June.
That quintessentially trumpian declaration was intended to assure lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans and the people who love us that we shouldn’t worry about the fact that he has promised to appoint justices to the Supreme Court of the United States who would take away our right to marry the people we love.
His throwaway statement about how much “the gays” love “the Donald” made back in June by the now newly elected leader of the free world was meant to distract from other moves Trump has either already made, or has promised to make as president, not least among them choosing Indiana Gov. (now Vice President-Elect) Mike Pence, one of the most astonishingly antigay, religiously zealous politicos in America, as his running mate.
In April of last year, when Pence signed a so-called religious freedom bill that allowed Indiana businesses to discriminate against LGBT customers, Pence was astonished to learn that a person could be walking down a street in his own state’s capital and see someone on the street who might know someone who is gay.
San Diego has a robust LGBT mediasphere. No fewer than four vibrant LGBT publications make their way here, while myriad other LGBT outlets thrive online.
Even the mainstream media in our fair burg has done a fair job covering LGBT issues in recent years. At this year’s San Diego Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards, the San Diego Union Tribune’s dynamo team of reporters, including Peter Rowe, Howard Lipin, Luis Cruz, Rod Huerto, Ruby Gaviola won the best of show category for their reporting of transgender San Diego teen Sam Moehlig’s transition story in the daily newspapers and Web category. Although the Union-Tribune story had a decidedly klutzy, if not downright offensive headline from a perspective of current LGBT activism and orthodoxy (How a Girl Born at Two Pounds Became a Happy Boy), it was, informative, sensitively written and well reported.
Yet on Election Night, despite the clear, present and loudly stated threats from the Trump campaign to marriage equality, open service in the military by LGBT servicemembers and myriad other dire jeopardies to equality for people of diverse genders and sexual identities and expressions, media coverage offered up nothing more than the sound of crickets when it came to coverage of our issues.
Admittedly, this reporter’s Election Night analysis of local and national media coverage through the lens of LGBT policy issues was unscientific. Essentially my research amounted to flipping through channels back and forth across several hours: four network-affiliated local channels, three networks’ special election-coverage newscasts, plus two 24-hour cable-news channels, all of which I monitored for nine-and-a-half hours.
Later, I listened to NPR for 45 minutes. By then it was nearing dawn, Pacific Standard Time. I’d had enough by then. I’d watched and listened to local reporters, whom I know personally. Some of the folks whose reporting I took in are gay and nominally out-of-the closet. Yet even they never mentioned the threat to LGBT rights now posed by the soon-to-be occupant of the White House.
Nationally, even the three out gay cable news network anchors failed to spark a conversation on the threats Trump-Pence pose to LGBT rights.
To be fair, there’s a lot going on during any election night. So many numbers, so many pundits. Add in the weirdness and surprises of Election 2016, and you can’t expect anyone to be perfect – not even Anderson Cooper. But, still; not a single word about the fate of marriage equality as it became clear that the Trump-Pence ticket won?
San Diego-NBC7’s Web site appears to be the first, and as of this writing the only, local media outlet to specifically mention the LGBT community in the context of the recent national election. As of this writing, we’re at the 24-hour mark since the first polls closed.
Ironically or perhaps serendipitously, NBC7’s Web site reference is merely a quote from Hillary Clinton’s concession speech in which the former secretary of state, who won the popular vote but lost the Electoral College Tuesday, thanks her supporters, specifically including the LGBT community, for supporting her campaign.
Other than that, the closest thing to a mention of our community a local media outlet came was KPBS’ interviews of politicians who are gay or lesbian, or its mention of the bisexual governor of Oregon – or this headline about AIDS: From AIDS To Zika: Trump On Global Health And Humanitarian Aid.
Last month, all of the locals re-ran newswire or network reports about a concert in New York at which about half a dozen major stars spoke passingly about LGBT rights among several other progressive issues at stake in the 2016 election.
It remains to be seen how far the new administration will take its threats to devolve LGBT equality in America. LGBT Weekly will keep you up-to-date as events unfold.
