According to reports, President Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka, as well as her husband, Jared Kushner, encouraged the White House to downplay a leaked executive order draft that would have undone key Obama-era employment protections for LGBTs and implemented a so-called "religious freedom" policy giving legal cover to people accused of discrimination if they claim their religious scruples as the basis.
Politico reported Feb. 3 that Ivanka Trump and Kushner encouraged the President to put out a clear statement on LGBT rights, both affirming Obama's protections for LGBT employees and attempting to stop speculation about the order. Both Trump's daughter and her husband are among his closest advisors.
Leaks began circulating early the week of Jan. 30. Activists were first expecting just a reversal of the Obama law, which the White House then denied. The draft of the full religious-freedom order got to activists and the media midweek. Many expected Trump to sign it at the National Prayer Breakfast but he did not. White House spokesman Sean Spicer later said that, while Trump respected religious-freedom principles, the anti-LGBT order was one of "hundreds" of prospective rules circulating through the administration and that there were no immediate plans to formally issue it.
National LGBT organizations took little solace in the White House turnaround and said that, no matter what the Trump Administration's plans are now, they will be ready to stand together to oppose not just anti-LGBT laws but laws adversely affecting immigrants and refugees, Muslims and others, as well.
Chicago activists meanwhile stand ready to hold a protest should the draft order be implemented. For information on the local coalition, visit http://bit.ly/2kmvtMN.
Politico's article is at politi.co/2kxLrGg .
