Under the Trump Administration, Anti-LGBTQ Hate Groups Have Steadily Risen

The last four years have shown the Trump administration to be little more than an engine of hate. Just about every action taken by the administration has been an attack on some of our most vulnerable populations, be it immigrants, people of color or just the flat out poor. The worst of this country has taken note and as expected, has followed in their footsteps.

According to NBC News, a report published by the Southern Poverty Law Center shows that anti-LGBTQ hate groups rose 43 percent last year from 49 groups to 70. This rise came as hate groups on the whole saw a downturn in growth. The report makes no bones about attributing this rapid growth to the Trump Administration, saying:

“Anti-LGBTQ groups have become intertwined with the Trump administration, and — after years of civil rights progress and growing acceptance among the broader American public — anti-LGBTQ sentiment within the Republican Party is rising. Though Trump promised during his campaign to be a ‘real friend’ to the LGBTQ community, he has fully embraced anti-LGBTQ hate groups and their agenda of dismantling federal protections and resources for LGBTQ people.”

Some of these actions include repeatedly backing cases that Alliance Defending Freedom takes on. ADF is a conservative Christian legal group which basically means that if you disobey their god they’ll bring the law into it. Some of the high-profile cases ADF have taken on include that of Jack Phillips, the man who refused to bake cakes for gay wedding because the bible clearly states “thou shalt not bake…for gay people.” That case went to the Supreme Court and ADF won.

From NBC News:

ADF is also involved in another Supreme Court case dealing with LGBTQ workers rights, representing a Detroit funeral home that fired an employee after she informed the home that she was undergoing a gender transition. Among its non-Supreme Court cases, ADF is currently representing three athletes in a suit against the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference, which adopted a policy allowing transgender girls to compete in interscholastic sports with cisgender high school girls.

Surprising no one, the Trump administration has publicly backed ADF in all three cases.

Trump totally supports the LGBTQ community, though. He just thinks they need to calm down with all that talk about “equal rights” and “being able to live without fear of persecution.” So what if transgender people can’t serve in the military? I mean, it’s not like hate groups have basically taken to calling themselves churches or Christian organizations to hide their bigoted beliefs behind the veil of “religious freedom.”

That’d be preposterous.