The Republican National Convention
(RNC) ended Thursday in Cleveland with Donald Trump accepting the
party's nomination.
In his record breaking 78 minute
speech, Trump vowed to protect the LGBT community.
“Only weeks ago, in Orlando, Florida,
forty-nine wonderful Americans were savagely murdered by an Islamic
terrorist,” Trump told GOP delegates. “This time, the terrorists
targeted our LGBTQ community. As your president, I will do
everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens from the
violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology, believe me.”
In an interview on NPR, Chad Griffin,
president of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation's largest
LGBT rights advocate, accused Trump of pandering.
“This is 2016,” Griffin
said. “We're beyond the time in our country where someone
deserves praise for acknowledging that we exist and that we shouldn't
be murdered. I think LGBTQ people across this country find it
offensive the positions of the party that he represents, and because
of his own positions. If his own positions weren't extreme enough,
his choice of [Indiana Gov.] Mike Pence, who's truly been the face of
anti-LGBT discrimination in this country really underscores just what
he thinks of LGBTQ people and our rights.”
Trump is “pandering for his own
selfish, political advancement,” he added.
Others who mentioned LGBT rights at the
RNC included Peter
Thiel and Texas
Senator Ted Cruz.