Yesterday Donald Trump tweeted his thanks to the LGBT community in the wake of the Orlando mass shooting, presumably for their support of his candidacy? It seems odd to make a statement turning a mass shooting perpetrated upon a minority into gratitude for that minority’s support, rather than about that community’s anguish or grief. Especially odd when according to one poll LGBT voters prefer Clinton to Trump 84% to 16%, a 68 point swing. Donald Trump does not have very many LGBT supporters to be thanking in this tweet.

Donald Trump said in the above tweet that he “will fight for you,” the LGBT community. “Hillary Clinton can never claim to be a friend of the gay community,” Donald Trump said in his speech Monday. “As long as she supports immigration policies that bring Islamic extremists to our country and who suppress women, gays, and anyone else who doesn’t share their views or values.” He said that as sympathy for LGBT Americans is high after the shooting, but his policy assertions in the past do not back up his commitment to the issues important to LGBT voters.

Donald Trump, a “traditionalist,” does not support marriage equality. None of the eleven Supreme Court Justices that he has proposed are supportive of LGBT rights, and he has said that he would “strongly consider” nominating a Justice that was opposed to marriage equality. “I disagree with the court in that it should have been a states’ rights issue,” Trump has said of marriage equality. He has waffled on the trans bathroom issue in North Carolina, again saying that is should be left up to the states.

Sources:
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2016/06/14/3788583/ donald-trump-thanks-the-lgbt-community-but-for-what/

Click to access WINS-Findings-Among-LGBT-Voters-May-2016.pdf

http://www.hrc.org/2016RepublicanFacts/donald-trump
http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2016/05/26/3782177/ donald-trump-republican-party-line-transgender-protections/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ donald-trump-marriage-equality_us_56af63c8e4b00b033aafb496
http://www.nytimes.com/ 2016/06/15/us/politics/trump-immigration-rally-lgbt.html?_r=0