LGBT GOP Group Bragged About White House Access and Said ‘We Are More Relevant Than Ever’
Just one day before President Donald Trump banned all transgender service members from the U.S. military the leaders of a group that advocates for LGBT Republicans bragged to a right wing news site about the high level of access they have in the Trump White House and how much more “relevant” they have become now that Donald Trump is President.
Log Cabin Republicans is a group of “LGBT Republicans and allies who support equality under the law for all, free markets, individual liberty, limited government, and a strong national defense,” according to its website. The group of “loyal Republicans” will celebrate its 40th anniversary this year with a bash at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C.
The organization released a statement blasting President Trump for banning transgender service members:
“This smacks of politics, pure and simple,” the statement begins. “The United States military already includes transgender individuals who protect our freedom day in and day out. Excommunicating transgender soldiers only weakens our readiness; it doesn’t strengthen it. The president’s statement this morning does a disservice to transgender military personnel and reintroduces the same hurtful stereotypes conjured when openly gay men and women were barred from service during the military’s ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ era. As an organization that led the charge against that hateful policy, Log Cabin Republicans remains equally committed to standing up for transgender military personnel who put their lives on the line to keep us free.”
But in an interview just 24 hours before, the heads of the Log Cabin Republicans were bragging about the great relationship they have with the Trump administration.
“At best, Trump is a quiet ally,” Log Cabin Republicans President Gregory T. Angelo (photo) told the Washington Examiner‘s Paul Bedard in an interview published Tuesday. “He’s certainly a ‘do no harm’ guy.”
Bedard reports “Log Cabin has suddenly become a main driver of key gay and transgender civil rights in Washington.”
In the puff piece interview Angelo “said the Trump Hotel fundraising dinner and expansion of GOP heavy hitters [to its board] is ‘a way to show that we are more relevant than ever.'”
And he bragged about the expanded access LCR has to the White House.
“Angelo said that the White House has been responsive to his calls and meeting requests. ‘It’s night and day, no meeting has been denied,’ he said.”
In just the past two months, Log Cabin officials have met with White House, Education Department, Pentagon, and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission officials to discuss civil rights issues, said Gregory T. Angelo, president of the group that turns 40 this year.
Log Cabin Republicans chair Sarah Longwell also was happy to extol her organization’s ability to advocate for LGBT people in Trump’s White House.
“It really does hold Log Cabin to be that choice for the entire LGBT community,” Longwell told the Examiner. “We’re the only ones who are going to be making sure that Republicans get better every day on our issues.”
While Log Cabin Republicans did not endorse Trump, under Angelo’s leadership they did issue a statement saying: “Mr. Trump is perhaps the most pro-LGBT presidential nominee in the history of the Republican Party.”
Angelo has made clear he’s a real Trump fanboy. In September of 2016, he tweeted that “Trump’s mention of ‘LGBTQ’ was an historic first.” Earlier that year he posted this tweet:
And in February, ignoring the fact that Trump is the first President of any party to enter office after marriage equality became “settled” “law of the land,” he tweeted this:
Just days ago, Angelo posted this tweet:
After the Log Cabin Republicans declined to endorse Trump, HuffPost Queer Voices editor-at-large Michelangelo Signorile blasted the group and rightly accused them of holding a “preposterous” position.
If Trump is the “most pro-LGBT†nominee, after all, why not endorse him, especially if you had endorsed candidates you’re admitting were less “pro-LGBT†and whose “doctrine†you believe was far worse?
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