NBC News’ NBC OUT contributor, Mary Emily O’Hara, spoke with several LGBTQ Trump supporters from various backgrounds to discuss their reasoning for support Donald Trump. In this article, O’Hara explains that many of the supporters never discussed publicly that they were supporting the Republican candidate for “fear of retribution,” and one interviewee said “I have lost so many friends throughout this whole election process. I understand that most of the LGBT community feels threatened by the new president-elect and his VP, but right now all we can do is wait and see what fight we are in for, if anything at all.”
Exit polls show that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender voters overwhelming sided with Hillary Clinton on Nov. 8, with 78 percent of the community voting for the Democratic candidate. As the shock of Donald Trump’s election victory sinks in, though, many may wonder—just who are the 14 percent of LGBTQ voters who support the Trump-Pence administration?
NBC OUT spoke with several gay and lesbian Trump supporters who, together, form a surprisingly diverse sampling of Republican voters. They are black, Latino and white. They range in age from just 19 to early 40s. They live in Mississippi, Florida, California and the Midwest. They all have one thing in common: They believe that Donald Trump is the best choice for president of the United States.
When asked why they voted for Trump and what they hoped his incoming administration would do to benefit the LGBTQ community, many of these voters echoed each other in their hopes for the future. Most also emphasized that they were less concerned with the LGBTQ-related aspects of the Trump platform than they were with general issues like national security, economy, and the right to bear arms.
While it’s clear that the majority of the LGBTQ community leans liberal—and remains fearful that the Trump-Pence administration will instigate increased discrimination and a step backward for equality—gay Trump voters don’t appear to share the concerns of the larger community. In fact, they are thrilled to support a man who many Republicans say is the first truly LGBTQ-friendly GOP president.
Read the full article on NBCNews.com
Trump rejected the anti-gay sections of the Republican platform in his nomination acceptance speech.
If you don’t believe me, look up the speech in the C-span archive (cspan.org) or just google it.
People need to calm down.
I too am pansexual, of color and a woman and I agree that Trump is the most liberal republican we had for a while. So far I am impressed with what he’s doing. And although I’m weary of Pence, I liked Trump ever since I studied him in middle school because of his capitalistic and economist views. The queer community needs to worry about what’s happening in their state. Here in Texas, anti-queer laws are trying to get past. Even a documentary was completed called The Cover Up with some activist who discuss discrimination of queer people at work http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5929642/?ref_=rvi_tt queer people don’t have protection laws in texas, we need to fix this!