Who knew Donald Trump would put the LGBT community first in such a prominent way on his first day as president? And by put the LGBT community first, I mean literally wipe us off the map. The whitehouse.gov site, which previously featured a page on Obama and his relationship with the progress of the LGBT community, now shows up with a "page not found" message under whitehouse.gov/lgbt. Earlier in the day, it featured an unrelated page for email sign-ups. Now, is this complicated? Yes. Snopes.com has fact checked that, while the term "LGBT" is missing from the website, it's potentially due to the transfer of such content to ObamaWhiteHouse.gov. However, even searching "LGBT" renders no results, whereas a search for other issues will.
The Department of Labor's page also no longer includes a page on Advancing LGBT Workplace Rights. Pages for civil rights, climate change, and National HIV/AIDS Strategy, and the White House Counsel on Women and Girls have also been removed, according to Advocate.com.
On the first day of a presidency that does offer a very real threat to us, jumping to the conclusion that the new White House did erase our community on purpose isn't dramatic. However, now that we've hit Jan. 20th, it's important to not vilify for the sake of vilifying, but rather fully investigating what has transpired against our community and how to best act for change. If the LGBT page returns, I personally look forward to breathing a sigh of relief and updating this information. If it does not, that's unacceptable. Day one.
