LGBTQ Trashes Trump for Advocacy [OPINION]

President Donald Trump has vowed a worldwide fight to decriminalize homosexuality and is being blasted by gay activists in this country for doing so.

Shocked? Shouldn't be.

Mathew Rodriguez, without hearing a single detail about the Trump plan, writes for Out magazine, "Rather than actually being about helping queer people around the world, the campaign looks more like another instance of the right using queer people as a pawn to amass power and enact its own agenda."

Rodriguez's theory is that Trump is looking to get Iran and is using its anti-gay laws to do it. Or something like that.

Sound familiar? Sounds like something Al Sharpton could have written in response to Trump lowering black unemployment figures to historic lows.

By the way, ever try doing a Google search on Trump's record on LGBTQ issues? Yeah, good luck with that. For the record, Trump was a strong advocate for same-sex marriage years before Hillary and Barack converted in 2008 for political purposes.

Trump does not do identity politics like politicians on the left do in order to identify and control voting blocks of single-issue voters. Trump's idea of governing is to treat all people equally and improve the quality of life for all Americans, not for individual special interests. There should not be separate laws for separate interests.

When Trump fights for the American people, it's for all people, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation. Low unemployment benefits gay as well as straight Americans. Opportunity Zones benefit black as well as white and brown Americans. Fair trade benefits Christians, Jews and Muslims in America. You get the drift.

Vox.com reported in October "Despite Trump's promises, his administration's anti-LGBT record just keeps growing and growing." Vox cites a proposal by the Administration that would "define sex as either male or female, unchangeable, and determined by the genitals that a person is born with" under Title IX, the federal civil rights law that bans sex discrimination in federally-funded schools.

Sounds like common sense to me, but it is offensive to the leaders of the LGBTQ community and apparently to Vox, too. They say the proposal would eliminate protections for the transgender community which identifies with a gender different from the one assigned at birth. Trans Americans can identify whichever way they want but we don't need a special law to accommodate them.

Life for most Americans is at least somewhat better today than it was two years ago. Leaders in the LGBTQ movement will never admit that because it would erode their power base. Many minorities have begun looking beyond the bonds of victimization towards what they can achieve as empowered Americans rather than an oppressed special interest. Members of the gay community should do the same.

Barry Richard is the host of The Barry Richard Show on 1420 WBSM New Bedford. He can be heard weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. Contact him at barry@wbsm.com and follow him on Twitter @BarryJRichard58. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.