Dan Savage Compares Hillary & Trump On Gay Issues

(Video still via CBS)

Dan Savage made a lively appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, on which he summed up how Trump and Hillary would be as presidents when it comes to queer issues.

On Trump:

I think Trump is a dangerous demagogue and a racist, and will be bad for queer people if he gets elected—it will be bad for all Americans if he gets elected … He has not really emphasized marriage equality or discriminating against LGBT people. He actually said that he opposed laws criminalizing trans people using the bathrooms that are appropriate for them to use. And so, it’s kind of a mixed bag.

Although, he’s surrounded himself with homophobes like Ben Carson, like Chris Christie, and he’s promised to put people on the Supreme Court who will overturn marriage equality and forcibly divorce me ’cause that’s pro-marriage.

So I don’t trust Trump in the long-term …

Savage seemed to be making the point that Trump hasn’t used gay rights as a wedge issue, but then kind of remembered that Trump really has gone on the record as stating he opposes marriage equality.

On Hillary:

Hillary Clinton is good on LGBT issues—she’s excellent on them … She wasn’t always good on, like, gay marriage—but neither was Barack Obama. When you go to somebody, you go to a politician and you say, “Please change your mind!” When they change their mind, you don’t then spend the rest of their lives going, “F*ck you for not changing your mind sooner!” You say, “Welcome to the right side of this issue—we’re glad to have you.”

Couldn’t agree with his last point more. I think people have differing points of view on forgiving politicians for former positions based on whether one views these things personally or politically. If personally, people get hung up on whether a politician deserves support, deserves praise. Hey, we’re not saying Hillary deserves a medal for being the new Harvey Milk. If politically, people are far more rational and able to decide whether a politician is going to vote in a way that is beneficial; it becomes about whether the politician is reliably useful or not.

I go with the political every time. After all, this is politics, not friendship and not marriage and not the Nobel Peace Prize.