Source: CNN

During Friday Follies, Fox News Laura Ingraham describes the Democratic town hall on LGBTQ rights from the previous night as an event of shameless pandering by Democrats to the social justice warriors. Raymond Arroyo says, “Laura, it’s almost embarrassing at this point. CNN, as you referenced earlier did another 2020 town hall marathon. And this may tell us how 2020 might go: it tanked their ratings. The equality town hall gave the Dem(ocratic) candidates an opportunity to curry favor with their reliable LGBTQ constituency.” They mention how Cory Booker “throws” himself at one of the questioners, “You are a beautiful man. Make our President bald again.” Joe Biden embellishes his story of a first encounter with a gay couple. And Kamala Harris with her statement, “My personal pronouns are she, her, and hers.” Raymond Arroyo calls this a “pander-fest” that lasted for hours and hours that did not help the ratings, being that already 82 % of the LGBTQ community votes Democrat.

This past Thursday night, October 10, 2019, CNN hosted a four and a half hour live Democratic town hall focused on LGBTQ rights. Airing on the eve of National Coming Out Day, this segment allowed 2020 Democratic presidential candidates to voice what they will do to combat violence against the LGBTQ community.

With two months remaining this year, there have already been 19 transgender women murdered this year. In 2018, there were a total of 26 deaths of transgender women, a majority being Black transgender women. These women are being killed by family members, partners, and strangers. While some of these cases were clearly anti-transgender crimes, others were deaths created by the very common consequences of coming out. Transgender women are oftentimes fired from their jobs because of their transgender status; oftentimes, they are being kicked out of their homes because they receive no tolerance or acceptance from family. To make matters worse, now homeless, many transgender women are being denied access to homeless shelters because of their status.

South Bend, Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg was the only openly gay candidate at the forum on Thursday. The CDC says if certain infection rates continue, one in two Black gay men in the United States will be diagnosed with HIV within their lifetime. On reducing HIV contractions among the African American population, Buttigieg stated, “First of all, we got to make sure that access to treatment is equitable and available to everybody. (That) Is why I propose Medicare for all who want it. We take a version of Medicare; we can make it available for everybody who wants it. But whether you’re on that public plan, that I want to create, or on a private plan, we require that everyone be treated with equity. And that includes not just treatments for HIV, which are shockingly expensive. But also prep and other things that can be done to prevent the transmission of HIV.”
 
But are Democrats becoming extremist advocates for LGBTQ rights? Former Republican Senator Beto O’Rourke declared, “There can be no reward, no benefit, no tax break for anyone or any institution (or) any organization in America that denies the full human rights and the full civil rights of every single one of us.” O’Rourke is meaning to point out that no religious institution can remain tax-exempt without approving of the LGBTQ community and/or not legitimizing their unions. In other words, churches will be fined for not accepting LGBTQ or its members. Is that an attack on churches that infringes on citizens’ right to freedom of religion?

There should come a time that everyone accepts LGBTQ as legitimate, but also a time that LGBTQ respects that others are entitled to their own opinions, as long as those opinions do not cause harm to another. Gallup Data taken from 1.6 million adults finds that 10 million Americans – 4 % of the population – identify as LGBTQ. But demographer Gary J. Gates believes the true percentage is greater than that. Gates speculates, “(there are) discouraging indicators of contemporary LGBT(Q) prejudice – like the fact that close to 30 % of Americans think that same-sex sexual behavior should be illegal – as a sign that ‘we’re still quite a bit aways’ from being confident that all survey respondents are comfortable disclosing their sexual and gender identity.”

How did fellow LGBTQ community members feel about the Democratic town hall? Katie Herzog says, “LGBTQ people are not a monolith. We all have different values and opinions on public policy, and there are fierce debates within this population on matters ranging from trans people in sports to whether or not same-sex marriage is actually good for queer people. The candidates at this forum don’t understand that – and why would they? Aside from Mayor Pete (who, according to some of the queer press, hardly counts), these are just not their issues. Attempting to wade into them on a live TV broadcast will just show actual queer people how little they get it.”

During the town hall, there were two interruptions by audience members that brought important information to the forefront of the CNN special. First, trans-women of color protestors displayed banners of “We are Dying” and “Do Something” while chanting “Trans-Lives Matter.” Then later, activist Blossom C. Brown takes the microphone away from a questionnaire to call out CNN for not having any black trans-women speak at the LGBTQ town hall. “CNN you have erased Black trans-women for the last time…” she says, “I am an extraordinary Black trans-woman, and I deserve to be here, too.”

In an episode of Unfit To Print, Amber Athey, the Daily Caller’s White House correspondent, summarizes the town hall in her daily report, “CNN tried to prove how “woke” they were by holding an LGBT theme town hall for the Democratic Presidential candidates. So, each candidate went up on stage in turn and answered questions about their platforms for the LGBT plus communities. And it quickly backfired though on both the Democratic Presidential candidates and the hosts of the event of CNN as they quickly were proven not be nearly as “woke” as they thought they were. Just goes to show how you can never really satisfy some of these far left-wing contingents who are constantly demanding further and further identity politics to the point where no one can keep up with what they actually want.” Overall, Black trans-women were not impressed with the CNN’s segment of LGBTQ town hall, and they even felt further victimized by their own “supporters.”