Unsurprisingly enough, the list of clergy members booked for Donald Trump’s upcoming presidential inauguration is full of incredibly homophobic pastors who will pray alongside him onstage.
A name most will recognize from this list is the historically anti-gay Reverend Franklin Graham. Graham has a long track record of homophobic behavior; from referring to gay people as “the enemy” to using money from his “charitable” organization, Samaritan’s Purse, to benefit the bakers who refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple. Graham has also praised Russia’s law that bans gay “propaganda”, supported a constitutional amendment in North Carolina to ban gay marriage, and refused to buy cookies from Girl Scouts because he believes they support LGBT equality.
Joining Graham on stage is Dr. Samuel Rodriguez of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference. Rodriguez initially opposed Trump during the election due to his stance on immigration, but later changed his views because he believed Trump would appoint conservative Supreme Court Justices. The two also share a penchant for homophobia as Rodriguez once called marriage equality the “legal catalyst for the marginalization of Americans who embrace a biblical worldview.”
Trump’s inauguration lineup also includes Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York who once compared the legalization of gay marriage in New York to the authoritarian government practices of North Korea and China. Dolan, who is the most prominent Catholic official in the United States, also compared homosexuality to incest and said that gay people are not “qualified” to marry.
Though I don’t think anyone would expect better from Trump, a man who has pledged to sign the First Amendment Defense Act (a bill that effectively legalizes anti-LGBTQ discrimination) and picked a Vice President that believes gay people can be “cured” through conversion therapy.
