My husband and I have now been together 27 years. After fighting for Same Sex Marriage for 25 years we were thrilled when we could marry in July of 2015. We are 60 and 61 and will continue to fight for Equal Rights under our Constitution.
I never thought we would be in this situation. A President Elect Trump. I started to write this in the early hours of this morning as I sat in shock in front of our television set but with tears in my eyes I just could not bring myself to write.
After all the issues that President Obama has fought for including health care for millions with pre-existing conditions, protections of undocumented immigrants, Trans Bathroom Rights, LGBTQ Rights against discrimination by the Religious Right and President Obama’s Executive Order that prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity by all federal contractors – though it contains a number of limitations that would not have applied to legislation passed by Congress. There are so many incredible things that would not have happened without the help of President Obama.
One of the things that scares me the most as a person in the LGBTQ Community is that Donald Trump can actually overturn protections that President Obama helped us achieve on Day 1 with the swipe of a pen! Mike Pence has already confirmed this.
In an article published in PINK NEWS : Donald Trump would roll back Barack Obama’s orders on LGBT rights, his running mate Mike Pence has confirmed :
The VP candidate confirmed that the Republicans would roll back Obama’s orders so that “the transgender bathroom issue can be resolved with common sense at the local level”.
He said: “This is such an example of an administration that seems to have… there’s no area of our lives too small for them to want to regulate, no aspect of our constitution too large for them to ignore.
“Donald Trump and I both believe these questions can be resolved with common sense at the local level.“These issues are resolved in the state of Indiana whenever they come up, and they should be resolved, for the safety and wellbeing of our children first and foremost, their privacy and rights, and with common sense. Donald Trump and I simply believe all of these issues are best resolved at the state level, by communities.”
He added: “Washington has no business intruding on the operation of our local schools. It’s just one more example of the heavy hand of this administration, and Donald Trump and I will stand by that common-sense people that when it comes to our kids, and the operation of our schools, those decisions should be made at the local level.
“Washington DC has no business imposing its bill and its values on communities around the nation.”
Speaking about anti-discrimination laws, Pence said: “No-one should fear persecution because of their deeply-held religious beliefs.” www.pinknews.co.uk/…
We know Trump has already promised to appoint new Supreme Court Justices that will attempt to roll back Marriage Equality and Roe v.s. Wade. Trump has also promised to sign a Republican Backed Law to directly permit homophobic discrimination.
In a statement, Trump confirmed he would sign the so-called First Amendment Defence Act, which bans the government from taking any “action against a person, wholly or partially on the basis that such person believes or acts in accordance with a religious belief or moral conviction that marriage is or should be recognised as the union of one man and one woman, or that sexual relations are properly reserved to such a marriage.”The broadly written law would effectively legalise all discrimination against LGBT people in all sectors – from employment to retail to healthcare – as long as the person discriminating claims it was due to their religion.The shocking move would require the repeal of Barack Obama’s landmark LGBT discrimination protections, which Trump also confirmed he would axe. www.pinknews.co.uk/…
In July the GOP adopted a new platform. As reported in The Washington Blade The 2016 platform contains opposition to same-sex marriage, the platform also objects to use of federal law to ensure transgender people can use the restroom consistent with their gender identity, indicates support for widely discredited “ex-gay” conversion therapy and endorses the First Amendment Defense Act, a “religious freedom” bill that would enable anti-LGBT discrimination.
In addition to opposition to same-sex marriage, the platform also objects to use of federal law to ensure transgender people can use the restroom consistent with their gender identity, indicates support for widely discredited “ex-gay” conversion therapy and endorses the First Amendment Defense Act, a “religious freedom” bill that would enable anti-LGBT discrimination.www.washingtonblade.com/...
So now we have turned the clock back not 8 years but 100 years. Back to the time when being homosexual was considered a mental disease.In the DSM Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders being homosexual was considered a mental disorder until 1987.
In an article in Psychology Today Sept.18,2015 : First published in 1968, DSM-II (the American classiifcation of mental disorders) listed homosexuality as a mental disorder. In this, the DSM followed in a long tradition in medicine and psychiatry, which in the 19th century appropriated homosexuality from the Church and, in an élan of enlightenment, transformed it from sin to mental disorder.
In 1973, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) asked all members attending its convention to vote on whether they believed homosexuality to be a mental disorder. 5,854 psychiatrists voted to remove homosexuality from the DSM, and 3,810 to retain it.
The APA then compromised, removing homosexuality from the DSM but replacing it, in effect, with "sexual orientation disturbance" for people "in conflict with" their sexual orientation. Not until 1987 did homosexuality completely fall out of the DSM.
The evolution of the status of homosexuality in the classifications of mental disorders highlights that concepts of mental disorder can be rapidly evolving social constructs that change as society changes. Today, the standard of psychotherapy in the U.S. and Europe is gay affirmative psychotherapy, which encourages gay people to accept their sexual orientation. www.psychologytoday.com/…
I grew up with a father who was clinically depressed and an alcoholic, a mother who was extremely bi-polar-manic/depressive and an aunt who was schizophrenic. I remember many trips to visit my mother in a private mental facility and my aunt in the State Mental Hospital in Terrell, Texas. They were some of the most horrific events that I will carry throughout my life. This all began in 1967 when I was a shy, introverted 10 year old when my mother had her 1st nervous breakdown. So as an adult I obviously had a lifetime of dealing with family members with mental Illness.
In January of 1990 when I came out to my parents they begged me and put pressure on me to go in for a psychiatric analysis. I refused at first but finally gave in to their wishes in hopes it would help them accept me as being gay. I told them I would go but it must be my mother’s psychiatrist who had diagnosed and treated her when I was a child.I am including a copy of the letter so readers can see read what my mothers psychiatrist wrote to my parents in 1990, 23 years after he had begun working with my mother.
I grew up in a time when my parents believed being homosexual was a metal illness. Being Strong Southern Baptists it was extremely hard for them to accept the contents of the letter. My mother’s doctor wrote them telling them that being homosexual was not a personal choice that I had made but it was a genetic-”physical chemical” factor.
It would take several years for my parents to come to accept his “diagnosis” and to accept my husband. Eventually they came to love him like one of their own children before they passed away.
I’m writing this not only because of the damage Donald Trump will do as President if he tries to re-instate “Conversion Therapy” but also because of all of the damage it can do to the LGBTQ youth of today.
It took me many many years to be able to come out to my parents and many more for them to accept it. Thank God I did not tell them till I was 30. Had I told them when I was in Jr.High or High School my parents would have had me committed and tried conversion therapy on me. I truly fear for young people coming out to parents who are extreme Religious Right that could legally have their children put through Conversion Therapy.
We have so much to lose as LGBTQ people under a President Trump. We must all come together to Protest and Fight for our Equal Rights and have Total Equal Rights under the U.S. Constitution. Now is not a time to allow Trump and Pence to take us back to 1950! We must unite with the ACLU, The Human Rights Campaign, Planned Parenthood and any organization that fights for our rights and protects us from any type of discrimination including religious discrimination.
I am writing this as a Gay American in support of our LGBTQ Community but mainly for our LGBTQ youth who will now be facing more discrimination than they have in the past few years when there was more acceptance than I thought I’d ever see in my lifetime.
It is going to be a Fight with the Conservative Right but we must all be INVOLVED. WE CANNOT BE SILENT! Everyone needs to remember the words of MARTIN NIEMÖLLER
"FIRST THEY CAME FOR THE SOCIALISTS..."
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.