Trump Pride rally hits Pittsburgh and Philadelphia in last-ditch attempt to woo LGBTQ voters
As Melania expresses "shock" that people "paint my husband as anti-gay".
The roving Trump Pride rally is reaching its final leg ahead of the US presidential election.
Following a stop in Minneapolis on Saturday and Pittsburgh yesterday, it rolls into Philadelphia tonight (Monday 2 November 2020).
The tour follows an outing in Tampa, Florida last month at which Trump’s daughter Tiffany’s rambling and widely-mocked speech made global headlines.
Incumbent US President Trump goes head-to-head with Democrat Joe Biden in the polls tomorrow (Tuesday 3 November 2020).
“The first pro-gay president”
At the Minnesota rally, Republican National Committee advisor and former cabinet member Richard Grenell, who is gay, called Trump the “first pro-gay president.”
According to Business Insider, Grenell, who was the acting Director of National Intelligence from February to May 2020, told an audience of around 60: “Today, we have a cancel culture run wild by — guess who? — the gay left. They’re the first ones to scream and cancel. Yesterday’s champions of diversity are today’s intolerance.”
The former US Ambassador to Germany continued: “In about the 2000s, we [LGBTQs] began to have a whole bunch of support, people would come up to me, and they would give me private support. And I started to ask people to move from private support to public support… That took a little more time, several years.
“And then suddenly, Donald Trump came on the scene. And he blew the doors off it. Because here’s a man that, from the ’80s, has been totally comfortable with gay men around him.”
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“Donald has been clear that gays and lesbians will be treated as he has always treated them: equally”
Grenell’s comments follow a video recorded by Donald’s wife Melania last week in which she expressed “shock” that people think her husband is anti-gay.
In the clip posted on the Twitter account for the Log Cabin Republicans, the largest Republican organization representing LGBTQ conservatives and allies, Melania says: “Donald is the businessman who never worked in politics: the ultimate outsider. And that earned him many enemies in the political establishment.
First Lady Melania Trump supports freethinkers and trailblazers.
She is an ally for equality.
In this exclusive video, the First Lady gets unapologetically outspoken. pic.twitter.com/kc8UFDqaOB
— LogCabinRepublicans (@LogCabinGOP) October 29, 2020
“I was shocked to discover that some of these powerful people have tried to paint my husband as anti-gay or against equality. Nothing could be further from the truth. Donald loves helping people, and he loves seeing those around him, and his country, succeed.”
She later adds: “As leader of the Republican Party and President of the United States, Donald has been clear that gays and lesbians will be treated as he has always treated them: equally.”
“All mentions of LGBTQ issues were removed from the official White House webpage”
A dedicated webpage on the Human Rights Campaign website lists Trump’s troubling record on LGBTQ issues since taking power – begnning with, on 20 January 2017: “less than two hours after Trump and Vice President Mike Pence were sworn into office, all mentions of LGBTQ issues were removed from the official White House webpage.”
Then, on 26 July 2017: “Trump made the dangerous and unpatriotic move to reinstate a ban on qualified transgender people serving in the military. His reprehensible action, announced in a series of tweets, could result in the discharge of more than 15,000 transgender Americans currently serving our country. The move, a blatant political maneuver to appeal to the most radical in Trump’s base, will undermine military morale and readiness.”
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