Almost a year ago we published a list of the top 10 anti-LGBT Donald Trump quotations. It’s time to revisit that list.
Trump supporters like to point out that their president-elect isn’t going to be terrible on LGBT issues. Trump’s appointees and policy positions say otherwise.
Here are some of his most outrageous anti-LGBT comments.
10. On Arianna Huffington
@ariannahuff is unattractive both inside and out. I fully understand why her former husband left her for a man- he made a good decision.
Why didn’t Trump just stop with “why her former husband left her”? Because the joke is that Arianna turned him gay by being so ugly, which is not a thing that happens.
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9. On Kim Davis
I haven’t been opposed to her stand and I think it’s fine.
Kim Davis was a county clerk who refused to grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Her “stand” was that her homophobia was more important than doing her job. And Trump thinks that’s “fine.”
In public and in private, Trump has been opposed to same-sex marriage. The only comment he’s made where he didn’t oppose it was when he said in 1999 that he hadn’t thought about much. It’s safe to assume that this opposition is a deeply held position of Trump.
8. On Rosie O’Donnell
Maybe she wanted to put the crown back on Miss USA’s head. I think she’s very attracted to Miss USA so she probably wanted to put the crown on her head herself.
Trump has been obsessed with Rosie O’Donnell ever since the talk show host criticized Trump on The View for pretending to be a “moral compass” when he said he would not fire Miss USA Tara Conner for her drug use and underage drinking. For years he has talked about O’Donnell in the most misogynist and fat-phobic terms in interviews and on Twitter.
One of his original responses to O’Donnell was to say that she was actually in love with Conner and that O’Donnell wanted to put the crown on Miss USA. Which Tara Conner already had. Which Tara Conner hadn’t lost in the dispute. Which O’Donnell’s comments had nothing to do with.
Does this make any sense? Only if the point is to dismiss O’Donnell’s opinion because she’s a lesbian.
7. On Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich stepping down because of his support for Proposition 8
They really hit him hard. I mean he left a job to take this job and they had a campaign against him and … I think it’s really unfair. The president and just about everybody supported traditional marriage. … What they’ve done to this man is really life shattering and very unfair.
Proposition 8 repealed same-sex marriage in California… but what’s actually unfair is that a really rich straight guy got criticized for trying to break apart other people’s families.
Referring to opposition to equal rights as support for “traditional marriage” is just icing on the homophobia cake.
6. On how he would explain his opposition to same-sex marriage if he had a gay grandchild
I have been against it from the standpoint of the Bible, from the standpoint of my teachings as growing up and going to Sunday school and going to church, and I’ve been opposed to it, and we’ll just see how it all comes out.
While the idea that Trump lives his life according to what he learned in Sunday school is laughable, using the Bible to explain why an entire class of people is not deserving of equal rights is not. In fact, it’s downright common for someone who has never cared about the Bible to pull it out the moment they need to explain why they’re homophobic.
5. Again, on Rosie O’Donnell
I’ve known Rosie for a long time. I’ve always felt to myself… I’ve always felt she’s a degenerate.
It’s easy for some people to laugh off Trump’s comments on Rosie O’Donnell as being part of a celebrity feud, but Trump has attacked her for over a decade at every opportunity, to the point where she just replies “go away” to his Tweets about her.
When Trump called Rosie a “degenerate” on The Late Show, David Letterman became visibly uncomfortable. Rosie was already out as a lesbian and everyone knew what Trump meant.
The target of hateful comments about entire classes of human beings is never just one person.
4. On his hatred of same-sex marriage
It’s like in golf. A lot of people — I don’t want this to sound trivial — but a lot of people are switching to these really long putters, very unattractive. It’s weird. You see these great players with these really long putters, because they can’t sink three-footers anymore. And, I hate it. I am a traditionalist. I have so many fabulous friends who happen to be gay, but I am a traditionalist.
This statement was made well before Trump’s 2016 presidential bid. It’s hard to understand what he’s saying, but he seems to be comparing the love between two men or two women to something as “weird” and “unattractive” as a golf player using a putter that’s too long.
The metaphor is strange, but the message is clear: he hates same-sex love.
3. On Michael Sam’s televised kiss
But it was certainly out there a little bit. And I’m very happy that he got chosen. I’m all for it. I think it’s great that he got chosen. I hope he does so well. But I thought, when he… you know, when—when he was really going at it. I mean, whether—that… I-I haven’t seen anything like that in a while. He was really going at it.
Here’s the thing that makes this statement so terrible: there is just no way Michael Sam’s kiss could be described as “really going at it.” It was a quick, G-rated kiss, part of an emotional reaction that cameras were surrounding Sam to capture, not a 20-minute exchange of gallons of saliva.
Homophobes exaggerate the amount of eroticism in any act of same-sex affection. A kiss that would be totally acceptable if it were between people of the opposite sex becomes “out there” if two men do it. Trump was reacting with disgust and trying to make others feel it too.
Michael Sam’s reaction to Trump two years later wasn’t G-rated, though. The football player hasn’t forgotten Trump’s homophobic insults.
2. On Caitlyn Jenner
I knew him a little bit when Bruce was a great athlete. He was one of the best-looking people you’ll ever see.
The Hollywood Reporter correctly referred to Jenner as Caitlyn in a question about transgender politics and Trump snapped back with “Bruce.” The casual transphobia and gratuitous disrespect of one of his prominent supporters is what puts this comment so high on the list.
And just to rub it in, he implied that she’s ugly. Very mature, Donald.
1. On the Pulse shooting
Appreciate the congrats for being right on radical Islamic terrorism, I don’t want congrats, I want toughness & vigilance. We must be smart!
On June 12, 2016, Omar Mateen opened fire on an LGBT nightclub in Orlando, killing 49 people and injuring dozens more. And Trump responded with “appreciate the congrats.”
Not only was he unable to point out what was obvious to anyone paying attention – that this wasn’t a random attack but a crime that specifically targeted LGBT people – but he made the entire thing about his ego.
49 LGBT people died and the first thing Trump wanted to tell the world was how awesome he is. That shows how much he cares about our lives.
Donald Trump’s top 10 anti-LGBTQ comments