After a draft executive order leaked and went public, the LGBT community was braced for an executive order that would take away their protections against discrimination by businesses. But it looks like that executive order has been stopped in its tracks for now, and we apparently have Trump’s daughter Ivanka and her husband, senior advisor Jared Kushner, to thank for it.
According to Politico sources, Ivanka and Kushner worried that there would be massive blowback should the protections the LGBT community has enjoyed against discrimination be walked back.
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To that end, the White House put out a statement on Tuesday reaffirming its stance on protecting LGBT rights: “President Donald J. Trump is determined to protect the rights of all Americans, including the LGBTQ community. President Trump continues to be respectful and supportive of LGBTQ rights, just as he was throughout the election.”
“The executive order signed in 2014, which protects employees from anti-LGBTQ workplace discrimination while working for federal contractors, will remain intact at the direction of President Donald J. Trump,” the statement continued.
However, White House officials tried to downplay the apparent flip, saying that the draft order was one of a couple hundred that were being floated and that it would never have reached the president’s desk in the first place.