Trump has assured his followers that he’s going to do great with the blacks and the women. He clearly has a close relationship with many groups he can refer to as the. But the gays? Maybe not so much. Trump is lining up a list of great VP choices, the greatest VP choices. And they all seem to have something in common ...
Ben Carson … compared homosexuality to pedophilia and bestiality, and said prison turned men toward homosexuality, proving being gay is a “choice.” He claimed that gay marriage would lead to polygamy and bring something akin to “the fall of the Roman Empire.” …
Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama … among the most anti-LGBT senators in history, scoring a zero continually from the Human Rights Campaign, voting for everything anti-gay that ever came before the Senate, like a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, and against everything remotely pro-gay, from a hate crimes bill to protect gays to the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell.” …
Newt Gingrich, the perennial homophobe who called gay marriage a “temporary aberration“ and compared it to paganism. In 2014 he implied the LGBT rights movement was inspiring the left’s “new fascism.” …
Oklahoma governor Mary Fallin, who said gay marriage violates “religious freedom,” successfully fought hard against LGBT rights measures in her state, dropped benefits for all couples in the Oklahoma National Guard rather than give benefits to same-sex couples and whom Trump said would be a “great” VP pick. …
Florida governor Rick Scott, who fought marriage equality, supports allowing religious-based adoption agencies to turn away gay couples (and is opposed to adoption by gays altogether, though didn’t fight a court ruling) and who signed an anti-gay law as recently as this past March.
During the primaries, Trump made the weakest possible outreach to gays, the old “I have gay friends” canard. Of course, the gay friends, like most of the people calling to congratulate Trump on his victory, seem to be invisible.
But if Trump thinks he can build the wall and still do great with Latino voters, then no doubt he thinks there will be no problem in picking a gay-bashing VP—and still grabbing the LGBT vote.