Last Friday, Donald Trump became the first Republican president in American history to acknowledge LGBT Pride Month. This came two and a half years after he entered office as the first president of either party in American history to fully support marriage equality. These are facts – not fake news – and they represent a fundamental shift in the acceptance of gays and lesbians in the Republican Party.

What the left doesn’t want you to know is that there are wide swaths of gay and lesbian Americans who want the same things as their straight counterparts: border security, limited government, a strong military, and the tools to create wealth.

These gays and lesbians support an administration that stands strong against terror because we saw what happened at Pulse Orlando when a terrorist killed 49 of us in cold blood in the name of ISIS. These gays and lesbians support border security because we know that unchecked illegal immigration depresses wages, brings drugs and violence across the border, and we are susceptible to all of these things, too.

TAMMY BRUCE: TRUMP CELEBRATES LGBT PRIDE MONTH AND THE LEFT JUST WANTS TO KEEP STIRRING UP DIVISION

As a veteran, I know how fundamental a strong military is to the health of America. As a gay veteran, I know that there are thousands just like me currently serving who believe in this country so much they’re willing to put their lives on the line for it. They bleed red like everyone else. They can finally serve with honor.

Gays and lesbians are waking up to the lies of the left, and what Democrats fear most is a Republican president who can reach out to us not by catering to us like a victim group, but by offering us the same things he offers to ALL Americans: an America-first doctrine that secures our borders, supports entrepreneurship, respects our marriages, and offers us a piece of the American Dream.

Democrats didn’t want Trump to acknowledge LGBT Pride Month at all. They’d rather not have gay and lesbian voters know that this White House is spearheading an initiative to decriminalize homosexuality worldwide, led by U.S. Ambassador to Germany Ric Grenell, the highest-ranking openly gay man currently serving in the Trump administration.

Gays and lesbians are waking up to the lies of the left, and what Democrats fear most is a Republican president who can reach out to us not by catering to us like a victim group, but by offering us the same things he offers to ALL Americans.

This newfound openness to gays and lesbians in the conservative movement will not be an easy transition - nor will all be on board. This is why Trump is resisted so heavily both by Democrats AND swamp creatures on the right who want nothing more than to thwart his agenda. So-called religious freedom laws will have to be able to coexist with the rights of gays and lesbians to exist in this country with the dignity and rights afforded to all others. Some Republicans STILL need to realize – as Trump does – that marriage equality is the law of the land and fighting that will only alienate a growing base of gay and lesbian voters (like myself) who have moved on from those battles and seek to unite in the vision for a strong America.

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Donald Trump recognizing Pride Month is important because it represents a radical shift in the conservative movement. As a contributor to Turning Point USA, I speak to young conservatives all over the country who take a very ‘live and let live’ attitude towards gays and lesbians. They don’t care that I’m gay. They don’t want to nullify my marriage. The more deeply religious of the bunch may take a different view towards my homosexuality, but frame their questions in a way that is deeply curious about how gays and lesbians can coexist with other conservatives in the movement that is bound by a love for America. And I’m happy to have that conversation.

That conversation is one that Donald Trump just sent into overdrive. That conversation needs to happen if conservatives truly want to evolve into the party for ALL Americans who value and love this country and the freedoms she affords us. Even gays and lesbians.