The Patriot Post® · Wither the LGBTQ+ Vote?

With the virtual Democratic National Convention now behind us, it’s clear that Democrats have a lot of lingering worries on their hands. From Joe Biden’s alarming cognitive decline and checkered history on race to Kamala Harris’s “tough cop” record as San Francisco’s district attorney and then California’s attorney general, this isn’t the ticket progressives had hoped for post-George Floyd.

But Democrats may find some other surprising cracks in their presidential platform — including that of the “LGBTQ+” crowd. Biden, who is Catholic, has never been a truly strong supporter of the homosexual agenda, and paying lip service to the Rainbow Mafia now doesn’t seem to be quite enough.

“Harris doesn’t have a perfect record on LGBTQ+ rights, either,” Madeleine Kearns writes. “For instance, as attorney general of California she denied sex changes for male prisoners (back when doing so was non-controversial). She evidently intends to make up for lost time, however, signing up as the co-sponsor of the so-called Equality Act, a staggeringly aggressive piece of legislation that would require all federally funded colleges, sports teams, homeless shelters (and more) to allow men who identify as women to compete and reside with actual women.”

Yet another flip-flop for Harris, who, like Biden, is known for putting her finger into the wind before taking a stand on any issue.

The problem is, people in the “LGBTQ+ community” are more politically belligerent these days, and they’re looking for appropriate zealotry in their candidates. Neither Harris nor Biden have it.

The fact that both candidates are promising to take a bolder stance on homosexual and “transgender” issues after the election might appease leftists, but it’s definitely not going to win them many votes on Main Street. Biden, for example, pledges to allow men who identify as women to use women’s bathrooms.

This is what Biden and Harris think is going to bring in undecided voters?

Over at Politico, Gabby Orr claims that Trump will lose at the ballot box if his campaign pushes against issues such as bathroom access. The problem with Orr’s take is that Trump isn’t actually pushing the issue. The Biden campaign is, and with recent polling moving in Trump’s direction, Biden risks not only alienating independents and conservatives but also LGBTQ+ voters who don’t see him as a true believer in their agenda.

Of course, Trump will never get any credit for supporting homosexuals. But let’s not forget it was Trump in 2016 who appointed Richard Grenell as the highest-ranking homosexual member in the intelligence community. And Trump’s been an outspoken critic of countries that criminalize homosexuality. Trump, in fact, was the first U.S. president to support same-sex marriage before having taken office. (About such things he’s a liberal New Yorker, not an ideological conservative.)

As for Biden, he’s come around in recent years to embrace LGBTQ+ causes, but he’s also taken stances in the past that leave some homosexual Americans uneasy about his sudden change of mind. In 1973, he called homosexuals in the military “security risks.” And as recently as 2008, Biden (who voted for the Defense of Marriage Act) continued to oppose same-sex marriage. And some so-called “transgender” Americans are still troubled with the lack of support from Biden when they were looking for acceptance and celebration.

It’ll be interesting to see whether Biden and Harris can inspire enough of this roughly 4.5% segment of the population to turn out on Election Day. If not, the loss of LGBTQ+ support may be an important lesson that playing identity politics, especially when it’s politically convenient, doesn’t always pave the way to the White House.