Apparently, change could not happen fast enough for the new Trump administration. As of the time of this posting, the LGBT rights page on the official White House website has been erased.
When you go to the page now, it shows a “lgbt” could not be found text or a graphic of Trump and Pence, which could be a cached image. Either way, the previous page dedicated to LGBT Americans appears to have been erased.
This change appears to have occurred within the first hour or so of Mr. Trump’s swearing in at the inauguration.
Also, we checked to see if the HIV/AIDS policy page was still published but it appears to be removed as well.
As mentioned on the website Tech Crunch:
“The Obama administration introduced the White House LGBT page to highlight major legislative achievements, historic court victories and important policy changes for gay and transgender people. The page also shined a spotlight on certain campaigns for gay rights such as the “It Gets Better” campaign to help those in the LGBT community struggling with thoughts of suicide.”
And:
“That campaign, as of this writing, still redirects to a “Strengthening Civil Rights” page. But, of course, all of that is subject to change. However, any mention of LGBT is now gone.”
Tech Crunch adds:
“Is this just part of the transition and will we see a new page with Trump’s stamp of approval? Who knows. Trump has been praised by the Republican group the Log Cabin Republicans as the “most pro-LGBT nominee in the history of the Republican party.” Though those same Log Cabin Republicans also refused to endorse him as a candidate.
Many in the LGBT community have expressed their concern over a Trump presidency and Vice President Pence has had expressed some pretty harsh sentiments against this often marginalized group in the past. In the meantime, we will be sure to keep you in the loop if we do happen to see a new page pop up.
In related news, it appears all mentions of climate change have also been erased throughout the site.
You can read more about the Obama administration’s work on gay and transgender rights in this archived press release here. In the meantime, we will be sure to keep you in the loop if we do happen to see a new page pop up.”
h/t: Tech Crunch
