Four words that might break my brain: “Black, gay Trump supporter”

When Donald Trump threw his hat in the ring as one of 17 Republican presidential hopefuls, many people wrote him off. It was said of him that he wasn’t making a serious run for the presidency, that he’d fizzle out quickly, and that he’d lack the support to get far in the race. That was June of last year. Fast forward to March 2016 and the Donald still in the race, which kinda shows a degree of seriousness regarding his presidential aspirations. As for his campaign fizzling? Given the length of time he has been the GOP front-runner, it is clear that he didn’t explode on the scene only to fade away. And he couldn’t have gotten as far as he has without significant support. That support has come from people like former Alaska governor Sarah Palin (who gave a bizarre, meandering, endorsement speech for Trump), celebrities like country music sensation Loretta Lynn (who said “When you’re advertising for the best, forget the rest!” though she has yet to reveal what qualifies Trump as “the best”, maybe it’s his hair), and of course the racists. Can’t forget them. They are ever so proud to finally have a candidate who doesn’t speak in coded dogwhistles, but rather, in the type of frank(ly bigoted) language they love to hear. There was ex-KKK leader, David Duke, white supremacists like the American Freedom Party, and the not-active-in-politics-until-Trump-came-along Tilly family (drawing a blank? Think of the recent PBS story featuring the woman with the white power tattoos that PBS didn’t think to say a thing about). That these people support Trump does not surprise me. What does surprise…nay-nearly breaks my brain…are black gay men who support Trump (yeah, you read that right):

Samantha Bee, host of the comedy/talk show/news satire TBS show Full Frontal, conducted the above interview with several Trump supporters. Included among them was an unnamed gay black male who offered up his clearly logical and well-reasoned opinions of Donald Trump:

The African-American supporter, whose name was not revealed, described Trump’s message as “simple but evocative,” adding that his “moderation on various social issues” allows us to “concentrate on things that are actually valuable for improving the country at large.”

“Simple, but evocative”. Ok, I’ll grant it: Trump’s message “Make America great again” is simple and evocative. That hardly makes it a *good* message though. It’s a call to return this country to a time when black people were second class citizens and gay people didn’t have time to worry about being married bc they were more concerned with being locked up if their sexuality were made public. “Make America great again” is anything but a good message, and certainly not one I’d think a gay black man would ever support. I have no clue what he means by “moderation on various social issues”, but if he thinks Trump is concentrating on this that will make this country better, this dude is not paying attention, bc a damn wall around the U.S./Mexico border is not going to make this country better. Neither will banning Muslim immigrants better our nation. Neither Mexicans nor Muslims are any kind of problem in this country. Problems in this country include things like an ever crumbling infrastructure, for profit colleges putting students in debt for decades, sexual assaults on college campuses, insufficient public transit, or climate change. But you don’t hear Trump speaking out on those. No, what we hear over and over again are “wall, wall, wall”, with some occasional breaks for railing against protesters with comments like “get him out of here” and “there used to be consequences”. Clearly what is important to Trump is the imagined right to express himself without protesters interrupting.

Another gay black man found his love life crumble because he is a Trump supporter. Trump Tower resident Tee Lee is sad that his boyfriend of 6 years recently broke up with him over his support for the Donald.

One gay man claims that his relationship of 6 years ended this past weekend because his boyfriend could no longer handle his vehement support of Donald Trump.

 Twitter user Tee Lee took to the social media site to air his grievances about the breakup, tweeting: “#TrumpRally My partner for 6 years has just broken up with me, just because I support Donald Trump and his ideas. #gaysfortrump #gay #sad.”

His boyfriend must have had his head in the clouds for 6 years if it took this long to dump the guy. If Tee Lee truly likes Trump’s ideas, then that says a lot about Lee, and none of it nice. Aside from being a living, breathing slogan, Donald Trump hasn’t actually presented much in the way of ideas to improve the country. The ideas has has puts forward are sexist, xenophobic, and racist.  People who like those kind of ideas are not good people, so I completely agree with the decision of Lee’s boyfriend to break up with him.

I swear, the strain of trying to fathom why these two queer men of color support Donald Trump is threatening to crack my brain in half. They both seem to like his ideas, but I’d love hear their reasons why. Why is a wall around the United States/Mexico border a good idea? What problems do we have that a wall will fix? Muslims coming to the U.S. is a problem? That’s news to me, because I hear of far more problems caused by white men with firearms that I do Muslims. And I’m guessing these two men think they are special snowflakes or something bc Trump rallies are not good places to be if you’re black. We’ve seen multiple incidents of racist behavior at these rallies-incidents Donald Trump has yet to condemn. That would seem to indicate he holds some unsavory beliefs about black people. Tee Lee seems to think those protesting the Donald’s rallies are thugs (going out on a limb here- he probably doesn’t own a Black Lives Matter t-shirt), instead of people opposed to Trump’s incendiary rhetoric. Despite their race and sexuality, both these men seem to have no idea how bad a Trump presidency would be for people of color and queer folks (and they likely don’t care how atrocious it would be for women, people from Central and South America, and Muslims). I almost feel sorry for them, because they are both deeply deluded. If they ever wake up and develop some empathy and some basic understanding of 20th century USAmerican history, they’re going to slap themselves silly for backing Donald Trump (perhaps they’ll slap themselves twice when they think they’re supporting a guy who is adored by white supremacists).

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Four words that might break my brain: “Black, gay Trump supporter”
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9 thoughts on “Four words that might break my brain: “Black, gay Trump supporter”

  1. 1

    those two men represent a tiny percent of those who are black and not straight.

    They’re famous because technology makes it easy to sift through huge numbers of people and find the outliers.

  2. 2

    Honestly, “Trump supporter” in general about breaks my brain. I have poor white* relatives who are buying what Trump’s selling, despite the fact that they’re going to be among those he screws. Why, why, why would ANYONE think that Trump is out to help anyone but himself? When has he ever not screwed over his business partners, customers, etc? Is watching the “other” be buried up to their eyes in shit so much fun that you don’t mind being buried up to the neck yourself? Because the only thing I can see Trump having to offer whites (men, straights, cis people) is that he’ll screw minorities (women, gays, trans/genderqueer) even worse.

    *Well, they say they are. I have some doubts about what a SNP analysis would say to that and some concerns that Trump might start demanding said analyses, but that’s probably paranoid of me. For now. He’s got plenty of “obvious enemies” to go for before starting to root out the “hidden enemies”.

  3. 3

    Dianne:
    ” Is watching the “other” be buried up to their eyes in shit so much fun that you don’t mind being buried up to the neck yourself?”

    Well said.

    My first comment on Orbit (hi, Tony!) so I don’t know how to do blockquote 🙁

  4. 4

    I hear of far more problems caused by white men with firearms that I do Muslims.

    That’s not quite fair because sometimes black men with firearms do get in on the causing trouble action. And Islamic men with firearms. And Islamic women with firearms. And toddlers of whatever race and religion with firearms. Oh, hey, is anyone noticing a pattern here? Though, really, the most dangerous combination is still a white man with a firearm. Almost as though power and privilege are dangerous.

  5. 5

    Dianne:

    Is watching the “other” be buried up to their eyes in shit so much fun that you don’t mind being buried up to the neck yourself?

    Oooh, I agree. That is nice.

  6. 6

    I guess any support for Trump is mind-boggling. I mean, I’m German (and soon also American if I don’t botch my test). My grandfathers were in Russia during the war. I’m here because my grandfather’s leg got shot off, because otherwise my grandfather would have died in Stalingrad. And America played a big part in rescuing Germany from fascism. My grandmother had to flee and was a refugee multiple times. I just don’t get how that same mentality can even be an option anymore, not here, not back in Germany where the neo-Nazi parties get double-digit election results right now.

  7. 7

    Then there are the wealthy people (almost all cis, white men) who are only up to their knees in shit and are actively trying to keep the shit from being shoveled out because they would have a harder time finding cheap workers if everyone could move around freely without having to try to push their way through deep, deep shit. Meh, not a perfect analogy, but my point was that a SJW style reform would make life better for everyone, but the differential would be less and that upsets those on top unduly. I don’t understand why. Perhaps a “better to rule in hell…” situation?

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