LGBT activist on Trump’s win: ‘It paints an even bigger target on the back of our heads’

Like her fellow LGBT activists, Eva-Genevieve Scarborough is still piecing together what happened on Election Night.

“I’m numb, shell-shocked. I’m angry,” Scarborough said according to the Chicago Tribune. “I keep asking myself, what did we do wrong? Where did we fall short?”

While Trump’s position on America’s LGBT community is vague (he’s said some gross things about gay people, but the legislation he’ll push on the issue is unclear), it’s his Vice President Mike Pence that sends a shudder down Scarborough’s spine.

Pence’s history of pushing some of the most ghoulish anti-gay ideology threatens everything Scarborough has worked to achieve, and she fears Trump’s win might make some think it’s “open season on the LGBT community.”

“It paints an even bigger target on the back of our heads,” she told the Tribune.

One of the most debunked and destructive creations of anti-gay religious conservatives is “gay-conversion therapy” — a method that claims to change a person’s sexual orientation from gay to straight.

According to Politifact, during his first successful run for Congress in 2000, Pence voiced support for the practice.

“Resources should be directed toward those institutions which provide assistance to those seeking to change their sexual behavior,” Pence wrote on his website.

“Congress should oppose any effort to put gay and lesbian relationships on an equal legal status with heterosexual marriage,” he continued, adding that “Congress should oppose any effort to recognize homosexual’s [sic] as a ‘discreet [sic] and insular minority’ entitled to the protection of anti-discrimination laws similar to those extended to women and ethnic minorities.”

With talk that almost sounds like a prelude to genocide coming from the mouth of the soon-to-be second highest office-holder in the country, it’s important to remember that Americans in general are rejecting this kind of bigotry more and more, making this country the most progressive it’s ever been.

“It’s not going to send me into hiding,” Scarborough said, referring to Trump’s win. “We’re going to have to stand together.”

 Featured image: Gage Skidmore (Flickr)

Sky Palma

Before launching DeadState back in 2012, Sky Palma has been blogging about politics, social issues and religion for over a decade. He lives in Los Angeles and also enjoys Brazilian jiu jitsu, chess, music and art.

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