Kacey Musgraves calls a spade a spade and declares a vote for Trump an ‘act of violence’ against LGBT+ community
Kacey Musgraves blasted those intending to vote for US President Donald Trump, saying it would be an act of ‘violence’ against LGBT+ people. (Getty)
In today’s news, water is wet, the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell, and a vote for Donald Trump in the US 2020 elections is an “act of violence” against the LGBT+ community, says Kacey Musgraves.
The American country singer took to Twitter to blast those hoping to cast a ballot for Trump this November. “To each their own, but know what your vote means,” the 32-year-old wrote.
Kacey Musgraves also shared an image with a quote to her 900,000 followers that read: “If you love an LGBT+ person and you’re planning on voting for Donald Trump in November, that’s an act of violence against them.”
To each their own but know what your vote means. pic.twitter.com/4T7OWmbtqS
— K A C E Y (@KaceyMusgraves) August 29, 2020
Kacey Musgraves says voting for Trump is an ‘act of violence’. His supporters aren’t best pleased.
But Musgrave’s attempt to buttress support for rival Democrat Joe Biden didn’t land too well with some right-wing Twitter users. One wrote: “This is the dumbest tweet I’ve seen.
“It’s actually embarrassing because you have no CLUE what Trump has done for the LGBT+ community, but think you are ‘woke’. Yikes!”
So, let’s briefly look at what Trump has done fo the LGBT+ community.
Across the last four years, a gap has yawned between Trump and more moderate or liberal Republicans, who, pollsters say, at least support some LGBT+ rights and protections.
The Trump administration has overseen rocketing rates of anti-LGBT+ hate crimes and mass rollbacks of protections, all the while peddling vastly symbolic schemes, such as pledges to end HIV transmission or the criminalisation of homosexuality.
These pledges have either been rife with problems, or total inaction.
Majority of Americans support trans rights. The president continues to make them a political target.
Moreover, Trump and other party leaders have sought to drive a wedge between the LGB and T in a slew of attacks against trans people’s civil rights across several branches of the federal department.
A pointless Department of Defence ban on trans troops, a rollback of healthcare protections by the Department of Health and Human Services, a proposal to allow homeless shelters to deny trans people access to single-sex shelters by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and efforts by the Education Department to both block trans students from using the bathroom which aligns with their gender, but also banning trans girls from joining female track teams in Connecticut high schools.
Despite this onslaught that has reduced one of the country’s most vulnerable and marginalised demographics to a political target, these policies are scarcely in the public’s interest.
Supporters hold up an LGBT+ Pride flag for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. (George Frey/Getty Images
Indeed, a majority of Americans – 62 per cent – have become more supportive of trans rights in recent years, according to a 2019 survey. Even among one of the Republican’s most relied-upon voting bloc, white evangelicals, a slim majority support trans rights.
Moreover, during many of this year’s victories in the arena of LGBT+ rights as well as years’ worth of Pride months, Trump has remained silent or vastly indifferent.
And when the president has been pressed about certain LGBT+ issues, such as the federal blood ban on queer men as well as his own campaign for the global decriminalisation of homosexuality, he has been utterly clueless.
All have come to be expected from the Trump administration, activists say. Trump officials, as well as his loyal allies, at the times, use the president’s apparent support for LGBT+ rights a balm of sorts to soothe rank-and-file Republican lawmakers and voters.
Nevertheless, just last month, the Republican Party announced that it would be leaving its 2016 party platform unchanged, meaning that the GOP will continue to officially support the reversal of marriage equality.
