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Donald Trump’s new press secretary Kayleigh McEnany has a long track record speaking against the LGBT+ community.
Trump’s administration named McEnany as its new White House press secretary this week.
She is the fourth press secretary in less than three years and three months since he started his presidency. She follows Sean Spicer, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and Stephanie Grisham in the role.
Now LGBT+ US organization GLAAD has analysed her track record on LGBT+ issues. They found McEnany has regularly argued in the media against LGBT+ equality.
Trans bathroom use would cause ‘voyeurism’
In particular, they found McEnany opposed transgender people’s right to use the bathroom that matches their gender.
She used one CNN appearance to frame transgender bathroom access as a threat to women and little girls.
On another occasion, McEnany said transgender bathroom access should be restricted to stop ‘straight men’ abusing it.
She said: ‘I do believe there is a viable argument, not that transgender individuals pose any harm, but that this could be utilized by some men, for instance, to go into female bathrooms, it’s happened at Target, which does have the same policy in place.
‘Voyeurism issues where cameras were put by men taking advantage of the policies, not transgender individuals, men, straight men coming in and really being a predator against women.’
Meanwhile, she also argued to block same-sex marriage equality.
Prior to the US Supreme Court ruling that allowed equal marriage, she addressed claims of marriage discrimination as ‘farcical blabber’. She said the court case wasn’t about discrimination.
Moreover she argued the Supreme Court’s ruling on marriage equality is a threat to religious rights.
Feminists should ‘go home’
Meanwhile McEnany has also appeared on a radio show hosted by Tony Perkins, president of Family Research Council, an anti-LGBT+ hate group.
She appeared on the same episode as Ken Williams. Williams is co-founder of the so-called ‘ex-gay’ group Equipped to Love. He used the show to oppose a California bill seeking to outlaw conversion therapy.
And she dismissed Vice President Mike Pence’s anti-LGBT+ views on CNN saying ‘Mike Pence loves all people’.
But McEnany hasn’t only spoken against the LGBT+ community.
She also called modern feminism an ‘embarrassment’. She said ‘the feminists of today reduce women to their sexuality, and in doing so, set women’s rights back by huge strides.’
Moreover, she argued against having service women in active combat, suggesting they are not capable of it. She described the idea they should serve in combat roles as feminists’ ‘radical agenda’.
She said that society should tell feminists ‘it’s time to pack up, go home, and find a new cause’.
The White House will now add weight to her anti-LGBT+ views
GLAAD president and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said:
‘Throughout her career, Kayleigh McEnany has used her role as a commentator to attack LGBTQ people through the press.
‘Whether it be her opposition to marriage equality or her attacks on transgender people, McEnany has shown that she knows how to, and even enjoys using the media to spread dangerous, anti-LGBTQ messages to wide audiences.
‘Unfortunately, in her new role as Press Secretary, she will have the power to continue doing so, but now with the White House name attached to hers.’
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