Ian Tuttle of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America are cautiously optimistic as an amendment to the GOP health care bill gives more power to the states and brings more conservatives on board. They also discuss President Trump’s willingness to renegotiate NAFTA, and Ian explains why he’s concerned about Trump’s approach. And they dive into the effort by Democrats in California to bar businesses from future state contracts if they help to build a border wall.
Social conservatives are thrilled with President Trump for his pro-life actions and his choice for the Supreme Court, but he is taking heat from the right for extending an Obama-era executive order which places LGBT agenda mandates on federal contractors.
Liberty Counsel Chairman Mathew Staver says it all started under the Obama administration three years ago.
“In 2014, President Obama, contrary to any federal law, issued an executive order saying any contractor who does business with the federal government has to have this so-called LGBT and even Q (for) questioning, which is part of that alphabet soup, and they had to put this into their employment systems,” said Staver.
“They were imposing on employers the LGBTQ agenda when they didn’t have any federal law as authority,” said Staver.
Staver says Trump made a big mistake in continuing the policy.
“We were hoping that would be one of those executive orders that would go by the wayside, but when President Trump came into office, sadly he continued that executive order in 2017,” said Staver.
“That is going way beyond the federal law. Federal law does not have sexual orientation or gender identity in the employment context or in any other context with regard to employment or public accommodation,” said Staver.
He says Congress has repeatedly stiff-armed the LGBT agenda on this front, which is why Obama resorted to an executive order.
“Congress has been asked several times to include sexual orientation and gender identity into the federal employment law and they have rejected that urging. Consequently, not only does the law not have it but we see from Congress they don’t want it in there. So why would the president go over and above them and impose this on employers anyway?” said Staver.
“It’s understandable for Obama, but it’s just not acceptable for President Trump,” he said.
The order requires any firm bidding for a federal contract to adopt policies protecting employees who wish to identify as a different gender than their biological sex would indicate. It also requires businesses to accommodate such personnel by allowing them to using restrooms and other intimate facilities according to their gender identity.
And those companies refusing to comply will be left out in the cold on federal contracts.
“Any company that doesn’t want to have this absurd policy in place or a policy that violates their sincerely-held religious beliefs, they’re going to have to sit on the sideline. They won’t be able to do business with the federal government,” said Staver.
Staver also asserts that the protections offered through this executive order are not the equivalent of other anti-discrimination protections enshrined in law.
“Gender identity is completely in a different category than discrimination on the basis of race or religion, which is protected by the first amendment,” said Staver.
He also argues the policy flies in the face of Trump’s top goal of jump-starting the economy.
“If we want to have America first and we want to create jobs? Don’t put this absurd policy on them when the federal law does not impose it,” said Staver.
While Staver lauds Trump for his pro-life actions and for selecting Judge Neil Gorsuch for the Supreme Court, he says this is an area where Trump has always disappointed traditional marriage advocates.
“He never was on our side it looked like on the so-called LGBT agenda. Certainly, he’s not on the level of President Obama, who was radical in that respect,” said Staver. “Unfortunately, in the first two weeks of office, he does this executive order and that’s disturbing.”
Staver says conservatives need to make a compelling case to Trump to change course.
“I think he needs to be educated on this issue and he needs to reverse this policy that Obama ultimately instituted,” said Staver.
