film / tv / substack / social media / lists / web / celeb / pajiba love / misc / about / cbr
film / tv / substack / web / celeb

mike_pence3.jpg

Donald Trump Finally Makes a Decision that Doesn't Piss Off Most of America

By Dustin Rowles | Politics | January 31, 2017 |

By Dustin Rowles | Politics | January 31, 2017 |


A lot of terrible, scary things happened yesterday in the world of politics, some of which may have suggested that we were falling quickly down the slippery slope into a fascist state, and we’ll get to that later today. But for now, a small victory that’s more of a victory by virtue of not losing any more rights. For now, at least.

There were a number of rumors and reports yesterday that Donald Trump would sign an Executive Order that would have taken away workplace protections for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people in the federal government established by an Obama Executive Order. It turns out, the rumors were true: Vice President Mike Pence had been pushing such an order, and there was a draft circulating around the White House.

Pence is the worst.

I didn’t want Donald Trump to sign such an order, but I knew that if he did, the rallies and protests would multiply like never before, and that protestors would start ripping the shingles off the White House. That’s the kind of Executive Order that would bring the left, center, and moderate right together like never before. It would have completely obliterated what little political capital Donald Trump has remaining. It would have been even more politically devastating that the first 10 days of his administration has already been.

Seemingly recognizing that, and because it’s actually not one of the 10-12 talking points he ran on, Donald Trump has decided not to move ahead with the order.

“President Trump continues to be respectful and supportive of L.G.B.T.Q. rights, just as he was throughout the election,” Trump said in a statement. “The president is proud to have been the first ever G.O.P. nominee to mention the L.G.B.T.Q. community in his nomination acceptance speech, pledging then to protect the community from violence and oppression.”

It’s clearly not a fight that Trump — who seems to be mostly indifferent when it comes to the rights of the LGBTQ community — wants to have right now, which also means he’s managed to alienate yet another person in the White House: Mike Pence.

Meanwhile, the Boy Scouts also reversed their stance on allowing transgender boys into the organization. From now on, boys will be admitted based on the gender listed on their application.

It’s not so much a victory as a non-loss, but given the news of the last week, it’s as close to a victory as we could possibly expect.

We’ll get to the Sally Yates business later this morning.