The Trump administration has elevated another ignorant homophobe to a leadership position.
The Senate confirmed non-scientist and climate change denier Jim Bridenstine as NASA administrator yesterday, on a straight party-line vote. A former Navy pilot, with no scientific credentials and a soft spot for debunked arguments against climate change, becomes the first elected official to take charge of the space agency and its budget of over $18 billion.
It just goes to show that knowing what you’re doing is not a prerequisite for leadership in the Trump administration but being anti-LGBTQ apparently is.
Bridenstine has an extensive anti-LGBTQ record. He’s:
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- Opposed marriage equality and sponsored several pieces of legislation seeking to ban and/or limit equal access for same-sex couples.
- Said on marriage equality that his “state of Oklahoma needs to stand up and say, ‘look, we’re not going to accept these marriages.’”
- Called President Obama’s guidance to allow transgender students to use the right bathroom an aggressive attempt “to fundamentally transform America,” insisting that “Parents and schools should assert their rights to govern themselves and not submit to Obama’s lawless federal bullying.”
- Called the U.S. Supreme Court’s repeal of the so-called Defense of Marriage Act(DOMA) “a disappointment not only because it is contrary to millennia of human experience, but also because it is clearly contrary to the choice of the people as expressed in a constitutionally valid process.”
- Co-sponsored legislation that sought to impeach former Attorney General Eric Holder in part because of his “Failure to enforce…the Defense of Marriage Act.”
- Lashed out at “intolerant left bullies” for making the Boy Scouts LGBTQ inclusive, claiming that the goal was “to silence opposition and reshape organizations like the Boy Scouts into instruments for social change.”
- Served as a guest host on Family Research Council President Tony Perkins’ radio show on more than one occasion.
Bridenstine’s nomination isn’t just another attack on the idea that knowledge and experience matter in leadership. It’s also another Trump administration attack on LGBTQ people.
