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The Republican Party is known for many things, temerity chief among them. And there has been perhaps no more perfect example of that audacity than the consistently anti-LGBTQ+ party's Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel firing off a celebratory tweet in honor of LGBTQ+ Pride Month.
One person for whom this astonishingly tone deaf move did not go unnoticed is Democrat Chasten Buttigieg, an educator and LGBTQ+ activist as well as husband to Democratic Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg.
In a blistering Twitter response, Buttigieg called out McDaniel and the Republican party's astonishing hypocrisy.
Those with "deeply held religious beliefs" are often the parents who force their LGBTQ children out of the home and onto the street. I've met with those kids. 40% of homeless youth in this country are LGBTQ. Re-visit your party's platform before you open your mouth about #pride.https://twitter.com/GOPChairwoman/status/1400212885595426824\u00a0\u2026— Chasten Glezman Buttigieg (@Chasten Glezman Buttigieg) 1622757631
McDaniel's tweet referenced the GOP's ongoing efforts to increase its LGBTQ+ membership by, as she put it, "supporting measures that ... balance protections for LGBTQ Americans and those with deeply held religious beliefs."
Those efforts have almost uniformly involved curtailing or overturning LGBTQ+ human rights and protections, especially those pertaining to the transgender community. In recent months those efforts escalated into an all-out assault on transgender children in particular, with dozens of laws introducedby the GOP nationwide to ban transgender children from school sports and block their parents and doctors from providing appropriate medical care.
In that context, it's easy to see why an LGBTQ+ person like Buttigieg would be outraged by McDaniel's disingenuous tweet. Quote-tweeting in response to McDaniel, Buttigieg did not mince words.
His response read:
"Those with 'deeply held religious beliefs' are often the parents who force their LGBTQ children out of the home and onto the street. I've met with those kids. 40% of homeless youth in this country are LGBTQ."
He closed with a pointed rebuke of McDaniel and all Republicans.
"Re-visit your party's platform before you open your mouth about #pride."
Buttigieg's response quickly went viral among people who shared his outrage at McDaniel's audacity as well as his anger at American conservatives as a bloc, who consistently vote and legislate against the well-being of LGBTQ+ people at every turn.
Many applauded Buttigieg for his blunt response and echoed his call-out.
Thank you for calling her out and Happy Pride Month to you, Pete, and all of us.— Lee WalTransPETEtationNationzer\ud83d\udc1d\u2708\ufe0f\ud83d\ude8a\ud83d\ude97 (@Lee WalTransPETEtationNationzer\ud83d\udc1d\u2708\ufe0f\ud83d\ude8a\ud83d\ude97) 1622767276
Those with deeply held religious beliefs should start and end at "love others as I have loved you" and realize that judgment was never required by them.— Irish Dave (@Irish Dave) 1622758842
If you're gonna come for our gay youth, understand, Chasten will come for YOU!— Sorry...Again (@Sorry...Again) 1622757887
I look forward to the day when "deeply held religious beliefs" means someone relentlessly shows compassion and empathy for family, friends, strangers, and everyone else under the sun.— Chad Eslinger (@Chad Eslinger) 1622758494
Meanwhile in reality, this is what the GOP is doing to LGBTQ rightspic.twitter.com/MT6J98Qtki— Dustin Ginsberg (@Dustin Ginsberg) 1622757671
If you double zero efforts you are still at zero, right?— Dr. Janine Knoop (@Dr. Janine Knoop) 1622767209
This is literally the GOP party platform of 2016, readopted in 2020, which defines marriage as only between and a man & a woman. And endorses the use of \u201creligious freedom\u201d to deny equal rights to LGBTQ people. \n\nhttps://prod-cdn-static.gop.com/docs/Resolution_Platform_2020.pdf\u00a0\u2026pic.twitter.com/Ndy5WLSI8v— Librarians For Secretary Pete \u2708\ufe0f\ud83d\ude86\ud83d\ude97\ud83d\udeb2\ud83d\udeb6\u200d\u2640\ufe0f\ud83e\uddbd (@Librarians For Secretary Pete \u2708\ufe0f\ud83d\ude86\ud83d\ude97\ud83d\udeb2\ud83d\udeb6\u200d\u2640\ufe0f\ud83e\uddbd) 1622758580
Much classier than how I would have said it. Love you, @Chasten. #pridehttps://twitter.com/Chasten/status/1400573134076628993\u00a0\u2026— Meghan Lynch (@Meghan Lynch) 1623126069
Read. Them. For. Filth.https://twitter.com/Chasten/status/1400573134076628993\u00a0\u2026— Love, Wolfie \ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08 (@Love, Wolfie \ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08) 1622827551
So far, 2021 has set a record for anti-transgender legislation, the most recent of which was introduced last week by Republicans in Florida during Pride Month.
McDaniel may want to give her party a rebrand to drum up support, but no one paying attention is buying it.