This week when Trump banned all transgender servicepeople from the U.S. military, it was clear (as well all knew) HE didn’t have the back of the LGBTQ community.
Caitlyn Jenner was widely panned for tweeting a query to the POTUS asking why he had betrayed the trans community.
In honor of Pride Month, Ivanka tweeted,
“I am proud to support my LGBTQ friends and the LGBTQ Americans who have made immense contributions to our society and economy.”
Vogue magazine, who has supported Melania & Ivanka in the pretty/fashionable department, has finally given up on Ivanka too. Michelle Ruiz had this to say about the First Daughter,
Just this June, in honor of Pride Month, the presidential daughter and special assistant to the president pledged to be an ally for the LGBTQ community… That support evidently doesn’t extend to the likely thousands of trans servicepeople (that’s the “T,” in LGBTQIA, Ms. Trump), who signed up to risk their lives on behalf of all Americans and whose careers now hang in the balance. (True to form, President Trump was quick to tweet, but by press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders’s own admission, seems to have no plan for those current trans military members, and according to some theories, he dashed off the ban in an effort to appease his blood-red base. Today, the Department of Justice dealt the LGBTQ community another blow, filing a brief that argues against workplace protections for LGBTQ employees.)
While she fancies herself an “advocate for the education and empowerment of women and girls,” she’s been conspicuously (dead) silent as her father rolled back workplace protections that apply to the gender pay gap and continues to urge (to the point of public shaming) GOP congressmen to defund Planned Parenthood and pass health care bills that would strip coverage from millions of women—not quite a boon to women’s empowerment.
Which begs the question: what political capital? Ivanka Trump has displayed none in her father’s White House—and it’s time to accept that there’s a good chance she never will. To invoke the old cliché, if insanity is repeating the same actions over and over and expecting a different result, it’s time to stop expecting Ivanka will do anything meaningful with her proximity to power. It would be pointless to continue to note her silent opposition to her father’s agenda or paint her as a bastion of virtue amid Steve Bannon’s alt-right swamp. She is not going to save us, or anyone else. And she is not going to stand in Trump’s way as he scandalizes Boy Scouts, or sanctions potentially unconstitutional discrimination from the Oval Office.
I’m with Vogue, I give up on her, too. Not that I ever had any faith. Turns out Tiffany might be the smarter daughter by staying out of politics.
(Photo, Instagram; via Vogue)
