Trump Says He Will Keep Obama's LGBT Protections Order

President Donald Trump has said that he will keep in place a 2014 executive order signed by then-President Barack Obama barring federal contractors from discriminating against LGBT workers.

According to The New York Times, the White House announced Trump's decision in a statement Tuesday morning.

“President Donald J. Trump is determined to protect the rights of all Americans, including the LGBTQ community,” the statement reads. “President Trump continues to be respectful and supportive of LGBTQ rights, just as he was throughout the election. The president is proud to have been the first ever GOP nominee to mention the LGBTQ community in his nomination acceptance speech, pledging then to protect the community from violence and oppression. The executive order signed in 2014, which protects employees from anti-LGBTQ workplace discrimination while working for federal contractors, will remain intact at the direction of President Donald J. Trump.”

The announcement comes amid media speculation that the Trump administration is preparing an order that targets the LGBT community.

In a series of tweets, Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin said that a senior administration official had confirmed that such an order was on the president's agenda.

“[T]here is a draft Executive order on LGBT issues including adoption,” Rogin tweeted. “Admin source says LGBT EO could affect federal employee benefits & protections & adoption agencies that receive federal funding. … EO could allow fed employees to refuse to serve LGBT based on belief marriage is b/t man & woman or gender is immutable from birth.”

Chad Griffin, president of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation's largest LGBT rights advocate, said that Trump had not earned the right to be called an LGBT ally.

“If he’s truly an ally, then why did he choose as his vice president a person who passed one of the most anti-LGBTQ laws in the nation, or an attorney general nominee who says the Supreme Court’s marriage equality ruling was an ‘effort to secularize, by force and intimidation?’ Donald Trump talks a big game on his support for LGBTQ people, yet he has filled his cabinet with people who have literally spent their careers working to demonize us and limit our rights. You can’t claim to be an ally when you send LGBTQ refugees back to countries where their lives are at risk. You can’t claim support and then rip away life-saving services made possible through the Affordable Care Act for transgender people and those living with HIV or AIDS. You can’t be a friend to this community and appoint people to run the government who compare being gay to bestiality,” Griffin added, a reference to Ben Carson, the president's pick to be the 17^th U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

Gregory Angelo, president of Log Cabin Republicans, a group that represents LGBT Republicans, applauded Trump's decision, saying that he was delivering on his commitment to be a “real friend” to the LGBT community.