NEW YORK—- Most LGBT-rights activists never believed Donald Trump’s campaign promises to be their friend. But with his move to ban transgender people from military service, on top of other actions and appointments, they now see him as openly hostile.
Leaders of major advocacy groups depicted Trump’s Twitter pronouncement as an appeal to the portion of his conservative base that opposes the recent civil-rights gains by the LGBT community.
“His administration will stop at nothing to implement its anti-LGBTQ ideology within our government – even if it means denying some of our bravest Americans the right to serve and protect our nation,” said Sarah Kate Ellis, president of the LGBT-rights group GLAAD.
Transgender service members have been able to serve openly since last year, after a move by then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter. Trump’s vow to end that policy was the latest, and perhaps the most stinging, of a string of actions since his election that have dismayed supporters of LGBT rights.
Some examples:
The Human Rights Campaign, a national LGBT-rights group, depicted the Republican president’s tweets as a “heinous and disgusting” attack on transgender service members.
“It is also the latest effort by Trump and Mike Pence to undo our progress and drag LGBTQ people back into the closet by using our lives as political pawns,” said the group’s president, Chad Griffin.
