Donald Trump is not the most dangerous thing on the Republican ticket.

If you suffered through the past month's three US presidential debates, you could be forgiven for thinking that poverty did not exist on this side of the Pacific. And that US schools were well-funded dream factories. And that "solve climate change" had been checked off the to-do list. And that Israel and Palestine were chummy BFFs.

Such was the issue-vanquishing crater opened up by the ongoing explosion that is Donald J. Trump in debate mode. In a flurry of "bad hombres", "nasty" women, "Jai–nah!" and "locker-room" talk, who had time to discuss the diminishing future of the country's eastern seaboard? Fox News anchor Chris Wallace did get his wonk on while moderating the third debate, but unsurprisingly chose conservative obsessions such as entitlements and gun rights as his focuses.

The most strikingly absent element was any discussion of LGBTQI rights. Which is a troubling black hole because, while we can get married, the question of our being equal in the US has by no means been settled. Not when hate crimes against LGBTQI people, particularly those of colour, have surged in the past decade. Not when gays, lesbians and trans people can be fired in 28 states for just being who we are.