WASHINGTON — On Jan. 31, President Donald Trump announced he was continuing the executive order by former President Barack Obama that protects gay and transgender employees from discrimination while working for federal contractors.
And not only did Trump extend the protections but he did so in powerful language that used the community’s own “LGBTQ” identifier while vowing he would be “respectful and supportive of LGBTQ rights.” The statement with the announcement added Trump was “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.”
Erick Erickson, editor of The Resurgent news site and a leading Christian conservative, said, “This executive order treats the faithful adherents of major religions as second-class citizens when it comes to competing for government contracts.”
Two bishops who lead the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ religious freedom and family life committees issued a statement calling Trump’s decision not to rescind Obama’s 2014 executive order “troubling and disappointing.”
The workplace discrimination protection order is “deeply flawed,” said Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia and Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore. It “creates problems rather than solves them,” they said. “In seeking to remedy instances of discrimination it creates new forms of discrimination against people of faith.” (RNS)
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