title:  Here Are Five LGBTQ Protections Trump Will Have A VERY Hard Time Reversing
text: One of the most devastated and vulnerable communities under a Donald Trump administration will be the LGBTQ community. The 2016 GOP platform is easily one of the most explicitly anti-LGBTQ in history. They plan to do all they can to discriminate openly, and with control of the entire federal government, they have no one to stop them.However, there are a few things that happened on President Obama s watch that the Republicans will find that their hands are tied on. Firstly, the bigots like Mike Pence and others in Trump s administration can gnash their teeth all they want, but the Supreme Court already ruled on marriage equality. It s done.The only potential caveat here is that, with the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, there s a vacant seat that the GOP obstructionists refused to allow President Obama to fill, though it was rightfully his. Even so, it takes a 60-vote majority for the Senate to confirm a SCOTUS justice, and no way will the Democrats go for some right-wing, homophobic nut on that one. They could try the nuclear option, of course. To that end, let s just make sure we keep Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg in tip-top shape until we get rid of Trump, Pence, and their cabinet of horrors.Secondly, President Obama was forceful with the issue of repealing Don t Ask, Don t Tell. The United States Armed Forces now has openly LGBTQ soldiers serving in all branches, and transitions for transgender folks are covered as well. President Obama famously told his military chiefs that they could step down if they had issues with his repeal. This is a done deal, and what are they going to do, waltz in and kick all the gay soldiers out? Didn t think so. Even Pence can t be that stupid.Next is the fight for transgender rights. While a lot of the legal stuff was by executive order, and Pence will likely DEMAND that it all be undone immediately, what they cannot undo is public perception. If this extremist administration goes aggressively after transgender people   who are easily the most vulnerable in our society   they will face swift and immediate backlash. Trump is already entering office as the least popular president in modern history, with the scandal of an investigation into his ties to Russia already hanging over his head. He isn t going to want to make himself even less popular by going after a group of people whose issues are front and center for the first time in history.President Obama also made a point of appointing hordes of openly gay judges to federal judgeships. These folks will smack down anything unconstitutional done against us in the name of Trump and Pence s bigotry, and there isn t a damn thing they can do about it. Absent violating the law, federal judges stay on the bench as long as they damn well please.Lastly   but perhaps most importantly   President Obama s open support of LGBTQ people pushed our issues to the forefront and changed public perception of us. The bigoted views of the people in Trump s cabinet of extremists are far outside the mainstream. We have President Obama to thank for that. He aggressively promoted equality here at home and on the world stage. He wasn t afraid to call out the bigotry of politicians in the United States, nor those abroad. He deliberately sent gay United States delegates to Russia s Sochi Olympics, in a blatant rebuke of Vladimir Putin s campaign of hate against LGBTQ citizens. He also smacked down the Kenyan president over his country s brutal homophobia. And, in a last nod to our community, President Obama made clear his feelings on the brutal treatment of transgender prisoners by commuting Chelsea Manning s sentence on the way out the door.Thank you, President Obama, for protecting our community. Who knows where we d be without you? We re going to miss you so much.Featured image via screen capture from Twitter