February 14, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – President Donald Trump told Fox News personality Geraldo Rivera that he would be willing to vote for a homosexual man for President of the United States, and predicted that most if not all the country would be open to the same.
Rivera interviewed the president Thursday in a wide-ranging conversation on a host of issues, during which Rivera asked, “Would Americans vote for a gay man to be president?”
“I think so,” Trump answered. “I think there would be some that wouldn’t, and you know, I wouldn’t be among that group, to be honest with you.”
“It doesn’t seem to be hurting Pete Buttigieg,” he added, referring to the former South Bend, Indiana mayor and Democrat presidential candidate who currently holds a narrow lead in delegates for his party’s nomination. Buttigieg is “married” to another man yet regularly invokes Christianity in contrasting himself with Trump.
“There would be a group that probably wouldn’t. But, you know, you or I wouldn’t be in that group,” Trump continued.
“We would not,” Rivera agreed.
Last year, Gallup found that a record 76 percent of Americans would be willing to vote for a homosexual for president. Whether Buttigieg would defeat Trump, however, is another matter – a recent Washington Post/ABC News poll found Trump leading Buttigieg 48 percent to 45 percent, a gap that could widen once greater national attention fell on Buttigieg’s hard-left stances on issues such as abortion.
Additionally, polling on LGBT political candidates is likely to be exaggerated to some degree due to the Bradley effect, a phenomenon in which respondents tell pollsters they support a minority candidate in order to avoid being seen as intolerant, but go on to vote against that candidate in the privacy of a voting booth.
A supporter of same-sex “marriage” who previously said it was “absolutely fine” to see Buttigieg on the campaign trail with his “husband,” Trump has a mixed record on LGBT issues. He has nominated a variety of pro-LGBT officials to various government posts and judicial vacancies. He has continued some Obama-era LGBT policies such as an executive order on “gender identity nondiscrimination” and U.S. support for international recognition of homosexual relations at the United Nations Human Rights Council. His campaign is also actively courting LGBT voters with rainbow merchandise.
At the same time, Trump has prioritized religious liberty and generally been aligned with social conservatives against the gender-fluidity movement, from banning gender-confused soldiers from the military to protecting women from having to share close quarters such as homeless shelters with men claiming to be transgendered. The White House also opposes the so-called “Equality Act” and maintains a biological definition of sex in its implementation of federal laws and regulations.
While lamenting the president’s moderate-to-liberal stances on some LGBT issues, social conservatives generally find their disagreements more than outweighed by Trump’s strong pro-life record and the majority of his judicial nominees, such as the recently-confirmed Sarah Elizabeth Pitlyk.