To kick off Pride Month, President Donald Trump tweeted messages of “support” for the LGBT community:
As we celebrate LGBT Pride Month and recognize the outstanding contributions LGBT people have made to our great Nation, let us also stand in solidarity with the many LGBT people who live in dozens of countries worldwide that punish, imprison, or even execute individuals….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 31, 2019
….on the basis of their sexual orientation. My Administration has launched a global campaign to decriminalize homosexuality and invite all nations to join us in this effort!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 31, 2019
It’s pretty simple, right? “Decriminalization” is the opposite of “criminalization,” so it’s a good thing when our president tweets that homosexuality should be “decriminalized.” Right?
Not so fast. There’s a so much wrong with Trump’s “pride” statement that it’s tough to know where to begin. Let’s start with word choice, ever a Trump nemesis. “Decriminalization” is something of a legal term of art, and it’s not as simple as merely making something that used to be a crime now perfectly legal. The word Trump should have used is “legalization.” Legalizing a particular action works just how it sounds – it lifts legal restrictions over that action. By contrast, “decriminalization”—a term coined by anthropologist Jenifer James— usually refers to the process by which criminalpenalties are lifted; when something is decriminalized, civil or municipal penalties often remain a consequence of the prohibited activity.
These days, decriminalization is usually discussed within the context of marijuana use and possession. Advocates for legalization are often at odds with those for decriminalization. Fines and other civil penalties not only keep the behavior societally forbidden, but also tie in to criminal enforcement when they incur penalties for non-fulfillment. Many opponents of marijuana decriminalization point to these latent results of civil penalties to advocate for full legalization as the more appropriate legal change.
The problem with Trump’s self-congratulatory pride tweet, though, isn’t just that he used the wrong word (or that he forgot the Q). It’s that he’s also taking credit for something not his own. The Trump administration launched nothing to do with LGBTQ pride. President Bill Clinton first declared June “Pride Month” back in 1999, followed regularly by President Barack Obama.
While we’re at it, the Supreme Court officially declared it illegal for a state to criminalize homosexuality back in 2003, when Justice Anthony Kennedy’s majority struck down a Texas sodomy statute. It’s also worth noting that Trump’s judicial hero and sanctified prototype—Justice Antonin Scalia– dissented from that decision, and voted to uphold the Texas statute.
There’s also the small matter of Trump having no idea what his purportedly pro-LGBT efforts even were:
Q: Mr. President, on your push to decriminalize homosexuality, are you doing that? And why?
TRUMP: Say it?
Q: Your push to decriminalize homosexuality around the world.
TRUMP: I don’t know which report you’re talking about. We have many reports.
Via Yahoo News pic.twitter.com/AQH4i66u9s
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) February 20, 2019
[Image via Ludovic Marin/AFP/Getty Images]
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
Follow Law&Crime:
