We Were In The Golden Years

It was LGBT heaven, the White House was lit up in the rainbow colors, trans people, lesbians, there were trans interns, trans people were appointed to high level posts and gays were invited to the White House, and now…

Every single Trump cabinet member so far opposes LGBT rights
Pink News
By Nick Duffy
29th November 2016

Every single cabinet member appointed by Donald Trump so far opposes LGBT rights.
The Republican President-elect has begun appointing his top team ahead of his inauguration in January.

So far the billionaire – who claimed he would “protect our L-G-B-T-Q citizens” while running for election – has appointed a string of politicians who oppose LGBT rights.
With many spots still up for grabs, here’s a run-down of Trump’s cabinet so far:

Attorney General Jeff Sessions
Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions is known as one of the most conservative and anti-LGBT members of Congress, holding a 0 percent rating on the Human Rights Campaign’s Congressional Scorecard on LGBT rights.

Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos
Betsy DeVos is a prominent donor to the anti-gay marriage lobby. She previously donated $200,000 in a successful bid to add an anti-gay marriage amendment to the Michigan ballot.

DeVos family organisations have also made large donations to anti-gay marriage causes – $500,000 to the National Organization for Marriage, and $100,000 to Florida4Marriage.

Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price
Another opponent of LGBT rights in Congress, Price is a co-sponsor of the First Amendment Defence Act, which would legalise discrimination against LGBT people on the grounds of religion.

Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao
Secretary Chao served in George W Bush’s Cabinet as Labor Secretary, overseeing a Department of Labor which was opposed to LGBT anti-discrimination protections.

White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus
The current Chairman of the Republican National Committee, Priebus has steered the GOP into its most anti-LGBT position in decades, helping pass its most homophobic policy platform in decades.

National Security Advisor Michael Flynn
The retired US Army Lieutenant has a history of opposing LGBT rights, recently attacking Obama administration for lifting the ban on transgender people serving in the military.

After the Pentagon lifted the ban, he fumed: “Too often, way too often, our troops are instead are distracted by trivial matters, trivial matters about what words to use, what terminology is politically correct and what bathroom door to open up.

Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley
The Governor of South Carolina initially vowed to defend her state’s ban on same-sex weddings amid a lawsuit.

And then we have what else we can lose, the Washington Blade wrote that,

Transgender advocates have expressed concerns about repeal of Section 1557, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender in health care. The Obama administration has issued a rule interpreting that language to apply to transgender people, including for transition-related care and gender reassignment surgery, as well as gender non-conforming people.
[…]
The potential loss of the Medicaid expansion under Obamacare is a source of anxiety for HIV/AIDS advocates. The program, which Republicans have threatened to change to a block-grant system, provides care for an estimated 40 percent of people with the disease in the United States.

Hilary McQuie, director of U.S. policy and grassroots mobilization for the HIV/AIDS group Health GAP, said the Price nomination is “a worst case scenario for people living with HIV.”

“In collusion with Paul Ryan, he will try to dismantle the safety net and healthcare system that has allowed us to build towards ending the epidemic,” McQuie said. “We are going to have to mount a huge response to secure Medicaid, Medicare, HOPWA, ADAP, CDC and every other acronym that represents healthcare and social services for people in the U.S.”

And I have a bad feeling that we might lose AIDS funding for Ryan White Act,

“Over the past eight years, HHS has shown strong leadership in addressing LGBT-related health disparities and implementing the National Strategy to End AIDS,” Graham said. “I hope that as secretary, Congressman Price will show the same leadership and attention to addressing important health issues that he displayed in the Georgia Senate.”

In conservative states that have cut funding for Planned Parenthood and for AIDS prevention there has been an increase in STDs and in some states it has reached epidemic levels.

Happy Days are not coming.