The White House says the new administration has no interest in rolling back protections of LGBTQ workers.
“President Donald J. Trump is determined to protect the rights of all Americans, including the LGBTQ community,” said a White House statement released Tuesday morning. The statement goes on to say that a 2014 executive order prohibiting discrimination against LGBTQ employees at federal contractors will remain in effect.
“The President is proud to have been the first ever GOP nominee to mention the LGBTQ community in his nomination acceptance speech, pledging then to protect the community from violence and oppression,” the statement says.
The White House statement appeared to come in response to rumors that Mr. Trump would soon sign an executive order that would remove some protections of LGBTQ people. A draft of such an order was reportedly circulating over the weekend.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer would not confirm the existence of such a draft executive order on Monday, telling reporters he did not wanted to avoid “getting ahead” of any orders the White House might issue.
“There is a lot of executive orders, a lot of things that the president has talked about and will continue to fulfill, but we have nothing on that front now,” Spicer said Monday.
