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Today our illustrious Attorney General and staunch supporter of white supremacy, Jeff Sessions, announced the formation of the "Religious Liberty Task Force". According to ABC News Sessions said the task force "will help the Department fully implement our religious liberty guidance". Sessions further explained that Trump's election has given the religious right the opportunity to stop the dangerous erosion of religious liberties in this country. So what is this Religious Liberty Task Force and why it is needed? In short this task force was established to allow racists and bigots the legal authority to discriminate against anyone who did not fit their description as a white Christian, especially gay people.
The Trump administration's Department of Health and Human Services has quietly been, at the behest of Christian conservatives, pushing the advancement of religious freedom policies that would allow physicians, nurses, EMT's and other medical personnel to deny services to LGBTQ citizens. A full explanation of the background and proposed workings of this task force can be found here in this article in The LGBTQ Nation.
If there is any erosion of any liberties in this country it is the erosion of those liberties earned and now enjoyed by ALL Americans, which include the hard fought civil liberties of people of color, gay people, women, the handicapped, the elderly and immigrants. Every since Trump illegitimately came to power, through Russian interference in our election to influence the small minority of Trump supporters, commonly caused his base, civil rights have come under attack.. Since his election the well founded tradition of separation of Church and State has all been destroyed with the help of the cowardly GOP in charge of Congress. With Trump's desire to hold on to absolute power he has been kowtowing to white supremacists and bigots who make up his base. Trump has become the first president who does not serve all of the citizens of the country, but only himself and those racists who help him remain in power.
During the campaign Trump stood with the rainbow flag and promised he would be the best friend the LGBTQ movement ever had. Since his election, he and his administration have disgraced that flag and done everything they could do to roll back the rights earned by the gay community in the last 50 years. From banning transgendered people from the military to removing protection of LGBTQ youth in our public schools, through Betsy Devos' Department of Education, Trump is doing the bidding of the Christian right. With a complicit GOP congress gay rights will most likely be eliminated if Trump and the Republicans remain in power. At one time we had the hope of a non-politicized Supreme Court defending the rights of all people, gay or straight, but now with Gorsich on the Court and Trump's nomination of Kavanaugh looming in our future we have little hope. The only way this war on gay people can be stopped is if people vote in November to take back our country. I hope that the American people realize that if Trump and the religious right succeeds in denying rights to gay people, non-whites and non-Christians will be next. They must also realize that Trump is not doing this out of religious convictions. He is doing this to stay in power and strengthen his power. The man doesn't have a religious bone in his body!
