In response to the Nazi/ White Supremacist rally in Charlottesville, VA, Gay League has issued the following statement:
Gay League offers condolences to the family and friends of Heather Heyer and to the families and friends of the Virginia police officers who died in Charlottesville, VA on August 12th, 2017
The violence and intimidation witnessed in Charlottesville, VA on the night of August 11, 2017 and the day of August 12th, 2017 is the latest and most pronounced example of the racist, anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim, xenophobic, misogynist, and anti-LGBTQ hatred in our nation. Incidents of hate towards minority communities and women have been on the increase since the election of Donald Trump, a man who at numerous campaign rallies took particular delight in singling out individuals who in turn were harassed by other attendees; a man who once boasted he could stand in the middle of a busy New York street and shoot someone and not lose supporters; a man who has appointed Steve Bannon, Stephen Miller, and Sebastian Gorka, men who all have ties to white supremacy, to positions within his administration, actions which aimed to normalize white supremacist ideology within the executive branch of the federal government. Gay League believes Trump has relinquished all moral authority bequeathed to all holders of our nation’s highest office with his inability and unwillingness to fully address the violence of this past weekend in Charlottesville and to call evil by its name(s) by speaking the words “White Supremacist”, “Nazi”, and or “terrorism” and Trump’s “many sides” comment as tacit approval of and complicity in the violent rhetoric and actions which culminated in the death of Heather Heyer and the serious, life threatening injuries of 19 people. The abandonment of presidential moral authority is further evidenced by Trump’s complete lack of public condolences to the families of Heather Heyer and the two Virginia police officers who died in a helicopter crash.
Gay League believes Bannon, Miller, and Gorka must immediately be removed from their current positions and prevented from future government positions, as well as any other administration officials or staff who believe in the tenets of Nazism and or white supremacy.
Gay League will not stand by and watch as elements within our nation try to tear it apart by hate. Gay League stands with all minority groups which are targeted by hate and discrimination.