As the worldwide tour of U.S. national embarrassment wraps up, Trump has returned to his favorite place – social media – and the White House Facebook page has also put out some content related to his recent Europe trip. The official White House account shared a photo of the spouses of NATO leaders, and their caption rather conveniently omitted Gauthier Destenay, an architect and the husband of Luxembourg’s prime minister Xavier Bettel.
Bettel is the only gay acting head of government in the world, and so the inclusion of his husband was a historic, important part of these official NATO photo ops. Destenay also stuck out in the photo, since in the absence of Angela Merkel’s husband Joachim Sauer (who has appeared in similar photos previously), he was the only male spouse. And yet the White House tried to erase it.
Is there a reason the @WhiteHouse didn’t include the First Gentleman of Luxembourg in this photo caption?
Like, a non-homophobic one? pic.twitter.com/W89mQzFDaq
— Scott Bixby (@scottbix) May 27, 2017
The original photo caption read: “First Lady Melania Trump poses with Belgium’s Queen Mathilde, center, and other spouses of NATO leaders: First Lady Emine ErdoÄŸan of Turkey; Iceland’s Thora Margret Baldvinsdottir; the First Lady of France Brigitte Trogneux; First Lady Melania Trump; Slovenia’s Mojca Stropnik; Bulgaria’s Desislava Radeva; Belgium’s Amélie Derbaudrenghien, and Norway’s Ingrid Schulerud, during their visit Thursday, May 25, 2917, at the Royal Palace in Brussels. (Official White House Photo by Andrea Hanks)”
You’ll notice Melania shows up twice.
Following an outbreak of criticism, the White House then updated the caption to include Destenay. They haven’t commented on the issue, so they’re likely hoping it will just quietly blow over.
This omission definitely reads like passive-aggressive homophobia to me, but the Trump White House is also relentlessly incompetent – so much so that it’s actually feasible that one of their staffers simply missed the dude directly behind Melania. (These are the people who couldn’t even spell Theresa May’s name correctly, or accurately count Trump’s executive orders.)
However, this administration is just as homophobic as it is inept. Trump has revoked protections for LGBTQIA employees and passed a “religious liberty” executive order. Vice President Mike Pence’s anti-LGBTQIA stance is very well-documented, from calling gay marriage a harbinger of “societal collapse” to opposing workplace protections for LGBTQIA employees.
Plus, just like their blatant lies about the AHCA, this photo fits into a Trump administration pattern: they try to pretend away the things they don’t like.
(Via Newsweek, People, and Time; image via Shutterstock)
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