Were ‘LGBT’ & ‘climate change’ really removed from Trump’s White House website?
As soon as Donald Trump was inaugurated, social media went into meltdown, with many lamenting the immediate disappearance of certain hot topic issues from the White House website; despite this being standard procedure every 4 years.
In the hours leading up to Trump’s inauguration, the streets of Washington, DC were flooded with Black Lives Matter (BLM), LGBT, and anti-capitalist protesters. The protests soon became violent, almost like a self-fulfilling prophecy that a Trump presidency would usher in a terrible new era for America.
The end of #humanrights in America. No longer a land of dreams, but of hate. #Trump#uselection#lgbthttps://t.co/HX1vbNSJES
— Tommy Myran (@tommymyran9) January 21, 2017
Many online were quick to point out that the official White House website had changed dramatically, and that searches for ‘LGBT’ or ‘climate change’ yielded no results.
You cannot delete us or our history. And you will not write our future. pic.twitter.com/8H2ZOGcyV2
— Nellie Fitzpatrick (@hlfitz) January 20, 2017
Yet yesterday the #Trump administration removed the #LGBT pages from The White House website... pic.twitter.com/KVlYkNGZgp
— Scott Edwards (@timelordTSE) January 21, 2017
@CNN continues to air the💩show of the #Inauguration & avoid mentioning the gutting of the WhiteHouse web page of #LGBT#Climate sites WTF
— Anomaly♡s Army (@edmeyer_able) January 21, 2017
I hope Donald Trump becomes FORMER PRESIDENT TRUMP! He deleted #LGBT and #CivilRights from #WhiteHouse website. Son of a bitch! #NeverTRUMP
— Spencer Karter (@SpencerKarter) January 21, 2017
It now appears that the divisive nature of the presidential election campaign has carried on into Trump’s presidency itself,with infighting taking place even among his opponents.
Things removed from WH website since #Trump's #inauguration:
— Iry (@IryNEicher) January 20, 2017
1) #CivilRights Page
2) #LGBT Page
3) #ACA Page
4) #ClimateChange Page
#LGBT pages at #WhiteHouse
— Gregory J.Theodore (@AA4F) January 21, 2017
gone; So what.
There R pages on other avenues.
It is #PresidentTrump's prerogative to do that.He's the #President
Less than two hours after Trump's #Inauguration, all mentions of #LGBT have been... https://t.co/BWHZFF3yQb by #auroreberge via @c0nvey
— Patrick Laaban (@PatrickLaaban) January 21, 2017
Others were quick to call for calm and patience, recognizing that such sweeping changes were obviously the norm during the transfer of power.
Note: Snopes reports no Trumpian #LGBT erasure, rather a transition gap. Stay tuned. https://t.co/qcuVvcguRj
— Peter Montgomery (@petemont) January 21, 2017
Many mainstream media outlets have reported on the conspicuous disappearances, but have adopted a more cautious ‘wait-and-see’ approach for the time being, in light of increased scrutiny in the current era of fake news.
READ MORE: Two Americas clash on Inauguration Day (PHOTOS)
“Only time will tell if the removed LGBT page and references will be updated with other material for the gay and transgender communities,” writes Michelle Butterfield in The Huffington Post Canada.
“Is this just part of the transition and will we see a new page with Trump’s stamp of approval? Who knows,” writes Sarah Buhr of Techcrunch.
At this early stage of the transition, however, very few search queries actually yield any results, as the website seems to be practically empty:
President Barack Obama’s former White House LGBT rights page has been archived for future reference, while President Donald Trump’s official White House page still needs to be fully fleshed out in a number of policy areas.
