Donald Trump, gay icon? For Keian Dayani of Seattle, totally. Dayani is a 29-year-old pharmacist, a Christian of Iranian descent. He lives with his partner in a high-rise building downtown. Their views on taxes are just one thing they have in common – the lack of an income tax in Washington drew both of them to settle here. Dayani answered a social media shout out from KUOW to talk about why he supports Trump. In Trump’s outspokenness, Dayani sees echoes of gay peoples’ experiences. “We don’t take criticism of who we should be or what we should be lightly,” he said.

Top story: Mama, I was supposed to be born a girl Which is why Dayani calls Trump a gay icon. “To advance our fight for the right to marry, the right to be employed, we’ve had to be pretty vocal. And Donald Trump is very, very vocal,” Dayani said. Dayani said his top issue as a voter is the threat of terrorism and radical Islam. He also supports a wall on the border with Mexico and other measures to stop drug trafficking. In Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton and her liberal supporters, Dayani sees a reluctance to talk about what he believes are major threats to the U.S. “That is what Hillary Clinton’s campaign has been: We can’t talk about Islam,” he said. “Donald Trump talks about Islam.

“And you can’t talk about anchor babies. And Donald Trump talks about anchor babies. “And you can’t talk about the wall. And he talks about the wall.” He continued, “All of these things that weren’t allowed in the ‘safe space’ that is America – or that was America – are now being talked about at the loudest volume possible.” In terms of rights and issues specific to gay and transgender people, Trump’s statements have been inconsistent. But Dayani said Trump seems more supportive of those rights than his Republican rival Ted Cruz. Dayani called the U.S. Supreme Court decision allowing same-sex marriage liberating because that issue no longer factors into his vote.

“Gay Republicans, you can come out of the closet, for heaven’s sake, do it!” he said. “You can be yourselves.” Dayani said most of his friends are liberals, who first assume his enthusiasm for Trump is ironic. But his views are very much in earnest, even when he equates Trump with Lady Gaga – he said both figures make important points “in a wildly entertaining way.” Dayani admits his own background gives him the political cover to express his views in largely liberal Seattle. “I understand I can have whatever view I want because I am gay and I am Middle Eastern, and that insulates me from any line of attack,” he said. “Can you imagine if I said the things I said with whiter skin? I’d be a complete pariah, fired from my job for sure.” Trump appears friendlier to gay issues than other Republicans, according to a New York Times story from last month. He has attended weddings between two men and of Elton John and his partner, he said, “If two people dig each other, they dig each other.”

But gay icon is a stretch, given that he does not support same-sex marriage – a position he has held since at least 2000, according to the Times. George Takei, the actor and social media star, tried to convince Trump otherwise but Trump “would not budge, saying he supported ‘traditional marriage.’” “I was tempted to say, marrying multiple times is not traditional marriage,” Mr. Takei said of Mr. Trump, according to the Times. Trump has been married three times. And according to the Human Rights Campaign, he said that if he were elected president, he would “strongly consider” appointing judges to overturn the Supreme Court’s same-sex marriage decision. The “gay icon” query draws a skeptical look from Kyle Curtis – he’s the president of the Seattle chapter of Log Cabin Republicans, a group for gay conservatives. He’s just out of college and works as a financial analyst in downtown Seattle.