In response to Donald Trump Jr.’s MAGA event in Ormond Beach today, former State Rep. and current candidate for HD-26 in Volusia County, Patrick Henry, released the following statement:
“While Donald Trump Jr. is visiting Volusia County today, remember that nothing he says about his father will change the fact that President Trump promised to come up with a replacement health care plan for the Affordable Care Act when he first ran for office— and four years later, he’s empty handed. Joe Biden helped pass the Affordable Care Act and has a detailed plan to improve upon it to provide more affordable, more accessible health care for millions of Floridians. With in-person early voting beginning this Monday, please vote early and vote for Joe Biden, the only candidate who we can trust to deliver on his promises.”
Statement on Tiffany Trump’s “Pride” Event in Tampa from Rep-Elect Michele Rayner
In response to Tiffany Trump hosting a “Trump Pride” Event in Tampa today, State Representative-Elect Michele Rayner of St. Petersburg, one of the first openly LGBTQ Black women elected to the Florida State Legislature, released the following statement:
“This is last-ditch political stunt that isn’t fooling anyone. Donald Trump is delusional if he thinks he can spend three years attacking our rights and then turn around and ask for our vote. Waving a rainbow flag for an afternoon means nothing after this administration appointed dozens of anti-LGBTQ judges to federal courts, codified discrimination against transgender Americans, and are fighting to overturn the Affordable Care Act, and its protections for our community. LGBTQ Americans will have an ally in the White House when we vote for Joe Biden. It’s crucial that we make a plan and vote to protect our rights at the ballot box.”
TRUMP’S HISTORY OF ATTACKS ON THE LGBTQ COMMUNITY
- Trump finalized a “religious freedom” rule that would allow health care providers to deny services to gay and transgender people, and restrict abortion access.
- Trump proposed a roll back of protections for transgender people against health care discrimination.
- Trump has systematically dismantled President Obama’s protections for transgender people, from banning their service in the military, to ending protections for them in federal prisons, to gutting health care protections by the Department of Health and Human Services, to allowing homeless shelters to deny transgender people access to single-sex shelters.
- Trump has been silent as Chechnya violently attacks LGBTQ people in anti-gay purges by Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov with Trump’s buddy, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia,
- Trump’s effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act will be particularly devastating to the LGBTQ community. Obama’s 2016 rule banned discrimination against the LGBTQ community, a rule that Trump attempted to gut. Furthermore, before the ACA, “anyone diagnosed with gender dysphoria or HIV/AIDS could legally be excluded from health insurance coverage, and transition care could be legally excluded from any insurance plans.”
- According to a December 2019 report by LGBTQ civil rights group Lambda Legal, one-third of the 50+ judges Trump nominated to the circuit court have a “demonstrated history of anti-LGBTQ bias.”
Photo by tedeytan is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0