Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has flip-flopped on North Carolina’s anti-LGBT HB 2 law, which requires transgender people only use restrooms or facilities that correspond with their biological or assigned sex at birth, among other things.
Asked about whether he supported HB 2 in a video interview with the Raleigh News & Observer, Trump said: “Well, I’m going with the state. They know what’s going on, they see what’s happening, and, generally speaking, I’m with the state on things like this. I’ve spoken with your governor, I’ve spoken with a lot of different people, and I’m going with the state.”
Trump’s statement reverses an earlier stance he took. During a Today Show appearance in April, he bemoaned the backlash that North Carolina received from the business community after HB 2’s passage. The GOP candidate suggested that the state should just “leave it the way it is” in terms of laws governing transgender people’s restroom use.
“There have been very few complaints the way it is,” Trump said in that appearance. “People go, they use the bathroom that they feel is appropriate, there has been so little trouble.” He also said he would “be fine with” Caitlyn Jenner “using any bathroom she chooses” if she were to visit Trump Towers.
Because of his stance at the time, Trump won high praise, particularly from gay conservatives. Chris Barron, the co-founder of the now-defunct LGBT Republican group GOProud, has called Trump “the most pro-gay Republican nominee ever,” with many other conservatives echoing that sentiment, including Jenner, the openly gay pundit Milo Yiannopoulos, and Gregory Angelo, president of the Log Cabin Republicans (though the group has not made an official endorsement for president). Trump even attempted to portray himself as more of an ally to the LGBT community than presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in a speech given following the Orlando terror attack at Pulse, a gay nightclub.
But other LGBT activists were not just going to let Trump’s change of heart on HB 2 — which some have speculated is part of pandering to religious conservatives — slide.
“Let’s be clear, Donald Trump just gave one of the nation’s worst laws for LGBTQ people a full-throated endorsement,” JoDee Winterhof, senior vice president for policy and political affairs at The Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement. “By buddying up with Governor Pat McCrory on the deeply discriminatory HB 2, Donald Trump is unabashedly embracing a dangerous law that takes away the civil rights of LGBTQ people and has cost North Carolina not only its reputation but millions of dollars in economic losses.”
“Donald Trump’s garbled comments on HB 2, the worst anti-LGBT law in the nation, show that he does not grasp the issues critical to the state of North Carolina,” said N.C. State Rep. Chris Sgro (D-Guilford), who is also the executive director of Equality NC.
“Over and over, he has shown himself to be unqualified as a presidential candidate, and no friend to gay and transgender people,” Sgro added. “We must resoundingly reject his ill-informed discrimination in November.”
In response to criticism from what he calls the “LGBT left,” Joseph R. Murray, II, the openly gay administrator of the Facebook page LGBTrump, defended Trump, saying he had not contradicted his earlier comments.
“The LGBT left is trying to make a mountain out of a molehill,” Murray said in a statement. “What Trump said in April and what Trump is saying now are not contradictory. In April he was suggesting that private business owners — such as himself — should make the call. The City of Charlotte wanted to make the call for all private business in its city limits. Big difference.
“Furthermore, as I wrote in USA Today, transgender rights and gay rights are not synonymous. Whether two men can adopt or say ‘I do’ is completely different as to whether biological men or boys can shower with girls and women,” Murray continued. “The LGBT left wants to lump all of us together for political and profiteering purposes. Trump’s bravery to speak out against radical Islam to protect the gay community — and Hillary’s refusal to do so — jeopardizes this dynamic. Until the LGBT left realizes that Sharia law is a greater threat to the LGBT community than [the] North Carolina law, they are jeopardizing the safety of the community they purport to represent.”
This story was updated to include comments from Joseph R. Murray, II, of LGBTrump.
Former Olympic gold medalist and reality TV star Caitlyn Jenner expressed support for a conservative New York County's policy banning transgender female athletes from using county-owned facilities.
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman instituted the ban via executive order last month.
Under it, any sports teams designated specifically for female athletes with transgender team members are prevented from competing or practicing at Nassau's 100-plus county facilities. This includes all ballfields, basketball and tennis courts, swimming pools, and ice rinks.
Blakeman argued that allowing trans females to compete against cisgender female athletes is unfair and potentially dangerous, due to the biological and physiological differences that favor transgender athletes in any match-up.
Two New York men have been charged with drug possession and distribution in connection with the death of Cecilia Gentili, a prominent New York-based transgender activist.
The arrest was announced in an April 1 news release from the office of Breon Peace, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
"Cecilia Gentili, a prominent activist and leader of the New York transgender community, was tragically poisoned in her Brooklyn home from fentanyl-laced heroin," Peace said in a statement. "Fentanyl is a public health crisis. Our Office will spare no effort in the pursuit of justice for the many New Yorkers who have lost loved ones due to this lethal drug."
Following her critically acclaimed performance as trans teen Jules Vaughn in Euphoria, Hunter Schafer says she no longer wants to play transgender roles.
Speaking with GQ magazine, the 25-year-old actress, who is herself transgender, noted that she has turned down "tons of trans roles" because she doesn't want to be typecast and prefers her gender identity not define the rest of her career.
"I don’t want to be that, and I find it ultimately demeaning to me and what I want to do," Schafer said. "I worked so hard to get to where I am, past these really hard points in my transition, and now I just want to be a girl and finally move on."
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