Trump's Religious Doublespeak Harms LGBTQ People

New Regulations Undermine Discrimination Protections

Statement by Rea Carey, Executive Director of the National LGBTQ Task Force

(January 16, 2020, Dallas, TX) - Responding to Trump's latest attack on LGBTQ people, women, religious minorities, and people of color on National Religious Freedom Day, National LGBTQ Task Force Executive Director Rea Carey gave this statement:

"National Religious Freedom Day should be about how we as a society make space for diverse people of faith as well as those who do not observe. Instead we are facing an administration that uses religion as a tool of oppression. The regulations released today by the Trump administration will empower social service providers who want to discriminate to do so with impunity. The stated reason for the new rules is to 'remove burdens' on providers, but serving women, people of color, religious minorities, and LGBTQ people is not a burden. Instead, these rules reinforce the power of people with privilege at the expense of people who have been marginalized.

Our communities no longer expect better from this administration, yet every time Trump attempts to remove support from those who need them most, it causes both tangible and psychological harm."