Gregory T. Angelo, president of the Log
Cabin Republicans, a group which represents LGBT Republicans, has
criticized Sunday's Equality March for Unity and Pride.
Demonstrators participating in the
Washington, D.C. march will travel from I Street to the National
Mall. More than 50 cities are planing sister marches. Expected to
participate in Los Angeles' #ResistMarch are House Democratic Leader
Nancy Pelosi, Congressman Adam Schiff, Congresswoman Maxine Waters,
actor Jussie Smollett, singer Adam Lambert and comedian Margaret Cho.
The march comes two years after the
Supreme Court found in Obergefell that gay and lesbian couples
have a constitutional right to marry, a decision President Barack
Obama supported by illuminating the White House in rainbow colors.
While President Donald Trump has refused to say whether he supports
marriage equality – he's said he's “fine” with the ruling –
indications abound that he's preparing to undermine LGBT rights.
In his first 100 days in office, Trump,
who arrived in Washington surrounded by advisers from Vice President
Mike Pence to Steve Bannon who oppose such rights, has cherry picked
some of the most vocal opponents of LGBT rights to lead top
administration posts, including Attorney General Jeff Sessions,
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Energy Secretary Rick Perry and
Housing Secretary Ben Carson, all of whom oversee policies that
affect all Americans, including gay, lesbian, bisexual and
transgender Americans.
Groups opposed to marriage equality
cheered his pick for the Supreme Court, Neil Gorsuch, whom they
believe will vote to reverse Obergefell.
Trump's campaign promise to be a friend
to the LGBT community is proving to ring hollow. The president has
reversed course on Obama-era guidance that instructed public schools
to allow transgender students to use the bathroom of their choice and
has broken with the tradition of proclaiming June LGBT Pride month.
Angelo, however, continues to applaud
Trump for not issuing an executive order that rolls back or
undermines LGBT rights in support of “religious freedom.” It
should be noted that while Trump has not signed such an executive
order, he has promised to sign broader legislation sponsored by
congressional Republicans.
Angelo
told CNN that the Equality March emphasized “division far more
than equality.”
“For months now we've heard that
Trump is going to 'roll back' advances made by the LGBT community,
and time and again those rumors were proven to be unfounded,” he
said. “All of this chicken-littling has turned the self-styled
'Resistance' into little more than a hollow cliché.”