Thread by @WardQNormal

I recently learned that the prevailing narrative in my family is that I'm only against Trump because I'm gay, and that this is ridiculous because Trump isn't anti-gay.

I have so many problems with this idea that I had to write a thread. Here goes:

To be more specific, my family believes that, because I'm gay and married to a man, I'm irrationally scared that Trump will take away my marriage license, even though, according to them, Trump supports LGBTQ. This is the story they tell themselves.

First off, I'll admit I don't think Trump gives two shits about whether someone is gay. He's no sexual puritan. But he is surrounded by and very loyally supported by people who are anxious to overturn Obergefell once they're done with Roe, and his VP supports conversion therapy.

So I don't think it's totally implausible that, some day, my husband and I might be told we can't file taxes together or collect each other's social security, because a devout Christian working in the gov't decided it's against his religion to acknowledge our life together.

But even beyond that, I am deeply offended that they seem to think I oppose Trump this for such selfish reasons. Don't they know they raised me better than that? Do they think I have no empathy for other people?

They're the ones that sent me to the progressive school from first grade, which was connected to a special ed school, so my class had kids in wheelchairs, and we learned braille from a blind woman and performed "The Rainbow Connection" in sign language at an assembly.

They're the ones that sat me in front of the TV and turned on Mr. Rogers and Sesame Street. They knew my best friend was Korean, my class had kids of color in it, and that on a series of Sundays my church group went to other churches to watch and participate in their services.

I thought the whole message I was supposed to get from childhood was that we're all human beings, and we all deserve respect.

They can't fathom that I might be upset about refugee kids locked in cages, even though they sponsored a refugee family from Laos way back when? Or imagine I might be angry about setting up mining operations in the national parks we visited on road trips each summer?

They took me to Raiders of the Lost Ark and played me the Sound of Music. I got a clear messge that I was supposed to fight Nazis. I didn't think I was supposed to find them "very fine people."

Now, I live in a city where I see women in burkas at the farmers' market and hear Spanish spoken all around me. They're just ordinary people from other places, not terrorists and gang members. Why is it a surprise I'm offended by his race-baiting calls for travel bans and walls?

I teach high school, and the girls in my classroom are the same age as Dr. Ford was when she was assaulted at a party by two black-out drunk assholes. Do they wonder why I find it problematic to put one of those assholes on the Supreme Fucking Court?

Both my husband and I have pre-existing conditions, and I've had to deal with insurance companies dictating what medicine my doctor can prescribe for me. Obamacare helped slow the skyrocketing costs of our insurance. Can they not see why I'd be upset to see it repealed?

No, they don't see it, because saying that I only oppose Trump because I'm gay, and believing George Sorors pays protesters, satisfies a tremendous need for my family not to have to face the consequences of GOP policies and the pain that they inflict on so many people.

Denying people healthcare results in people dying. If Roe v. Wade is overturned, women will die. When companies are allowed to pollute with no regulation, people die. Global warming is real, and it's not, as my dad has said, "good for the crops." Their votes are killing people.

My family doesn't want to face that. They also don't want to face the fact that tax cuts for the rich cause more income inequality & suffering and do not grow the economy. Nor that GOP presidents increase the deficit, while Dems reduce it, and this has been true for 40 years.

They don't want to face the fact that the current booming economy actually has been chugging along fine for 8 years, thanks to Obama. Or that they are on the same team as racists who want to create a white ethnostate.

Mostly, they don't want to face the fact that they voted for a conman. A racist, ignorant, incompetent, multi-bankrupted reality TV star who has affairs with porn stars and swindled them, along with millions of formerly moderate, reasonable voters.

They don't want to know about his lawyer and campaign manager in prison, nor the stories of his fraud and tax evasion. They don't want to have to think about his boorish behavior, his bullying of allies and sucking up to dictators, and feel guilty that they put him in office.

So rather than think about that, they tell themselves that I'm only mad because I'm gay, and the millions of other people who are mad are either similarly selfish or paid by some nebulous supervillain. Avoidance is a hell of a drug.

So to conclude this thread, a message directly to my GOP family, if you ever see this: I hate Trump because Trump is quite clearly the worst thing to happen to this country in my lifetime. I can't fathom how the people who raised me don't hate him too.