Gay son gives his Trump-supporting mum a much-needed wake-up call in eye-opening new campaign ad
Screenshot from GLAAD advert (YouTube)
A new election advert features a gay son pleading with his Donald Trump-supporting mum to see the “harm” the president is doing to the LGBT+ community.
The advert, created by GLAAD, will target Fox News viewers this week, and shows a gay man talking with his mother on video call about the upcoming presidential election.
In the advert, the Republican mum tells her gay son that he’s “exaggerating” when he raises his concerns about Trump.
“Ma, do you know that I could be evicted for being gay, or turned away from the emergency room? Trump opposes the bill that would change that,” the gay son tells his mother.
I know you like him, but I need you to understand what he’s doing to harm me.
“That doesn’t sound right, son,” the mum replies.
“Don’t you want to be a grandma?” he asks.
“Of course I want to be a grandma.”
The gay son starkly tells her: “He doesn’t want me to adopt. I know you like him, but I need you to understand what he’s doing to harm me.”
The advert draws attention to Trump’s refusal to support the Equality Act, which would extend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to include gender identity and sexual orientation as protected categories.
Donald Trump has argued that he is the most ‘pro-gay president in American history’ – but his track record paints a different picture.
The advert comes after the Trump campaign tried to rally support from queer people by claiming that he is the most “pro-gay president in American history” last week.
Last Thursday (20 August), the Log Cabin Republicans, the largest group of LGBT+ conservatives in the US, released a video where the gay former Trump official Richard Grenell claimed that Trump was an LGBT+ ally.
“President Trump has done more to advance the rights of gays and lesbians in three years than Joe Biden did in 40-plus years in Washington,” Grenell said in the video.
The only examples that Grenell gave of Trump being pro-LGBT+ were his own appointment as acting director of national intelligence, and Trump’s supposed “historic campaign to decriminalise homosexuality around the world”.
Although much-touted by gay Trump supporters, there is little evidence that any such US-led campaign has ever existed beyond an initial press release.
Grenell finished the video by repeating: “Gay people don’t have to vote Democrat, because Donald Trump is the most pro-gay president in American history.”
Trump retweeted the Log Cabin Republicans’ video, and wrote: “My great honor!!!”
Despite the Trump campaign’s attempts to gain queer votes, GLAAD’s Trump Accountability Project proves that he is not an ally to the LGBT+ community.
The project has so far recorded 168 attacks on the LGBT+ community in the 1,308 days Trump has been in office, averaging out at slightly less than one regressive action every week.
Despite this, Trump is content to try and win over LGBT+ voters – without taking any meaningful action to improve queer lives.
