Brief Summary of What Can Come for the LGBT Under Trump Adminstration

With the upcoming Trump administration we have to remember that with the first time he was in the White House he executed an effort to erase protections for LGBTQ people, within the Trump administration included an effort to define transgender out of existence and erode protections for transgender students and workers by weakening gender-affirming health care that most transgender had difficulty accessing them.

During Biden's administration a lot of the Trump's-era laws were reversed, but Trump vowed to dismantle Biden's policies that offer protection for transgender students under Title IX, a federal civil right law that prohibits sex discrimination in education. In the late 1990's and early 2000's Trump expressed support for domestic partnership laws - a position that the GOP opposed at the time, he even showed personal tolerance for LGBTQ issues such as queer people serving in the military; but  his views shifted around 2011 where amid a possible presidential bid, he mentioned he was opposed to gay marriage and in 2015 he mentioned he supported traditional marriage.

Trump became the first GOP presidential nominee to mention LGBTQ issues in his 2016 Republican National Convention speech, where he pledged to protect the community in the aftermath of the Pulse nightclub shooting, albeit the juxtaposition came with his election of vice-president with Mike Pence who had opposed marriage equality.

With his 2016 campaign Trump said that he would strongly consider appointing Supreme Court Justices who would overturn the 2015 ruling that legalized marriage equality, but his perspective have never been precise as he changed his point of views to adjust to what the situation need it. His comments on transgender issues, Trump said over the North Carolina bathroom ban, that transgender people "Should use the bathroom they feel appropriate" But his administration went to reverse a policy that allowed transgender students to use bathrooms that corresponded with gender identity plus his administration banned some transgender people from serving in the military while Trump was in office.

Trump even mentioned if he goes back to the White House, he will impose punishment for doctors and teachers who discuss gender affirming care with minors, which the sentiment reflected on his 2024 campaign. 

References:

1. Trump on LGBT Rights: https://www.aclu.org/news/lgbtq-rights/trump-on-lgbtq-rights-rolling-back-protections-and-criminalizing-gender-nonconformity
2. Compare Trump and Harris views on LGBT Rights

The Censored Eleven

I am trying to think on how much times had changed, yet some aspects of the past are refused to be learned by generations that follow. I feel we have changed for good on some extent during the last sixty years but yet echoes of the past such as white supremacy refuse to die. The Censored Eleven are a series of eleven cartoons that are part of the Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes catalogue that had been out of circulation since 1968 due the extreme racist tones that are contained in each of the animated shorts.

The shorts which derive into a plethora of stereotypes against minorities, mostly aimed at African Americans and Aboriginal populations back in the early 1900's. The problematic of the censored Eleven comes from decades-old and current day incarnations of African American stereotypes which include mammy, Mandingo, Sapphire, Uncle Tom and watermelon, many of the stereotypes created during the height of the trans-Atlantic Slave Trade were used to help commodify black bodies and justify slavery as a business. One example an enslaved person, forced under violence to work from sunrise to sunset, could hardly be described as lazy, yet laziness and characteristics of submissiveness historically was assigned as a stereotype of African Americans.

Hittin' the Train for Halleluiah Land

Several stereotypes were developed as offensive caricatures constructed during slavery and were subsequently popularized by minstrel shows. One trope is the representation of the mammy archetype, where the trope pictured of black women working in the homes of white families and being the caretakers for the children, the trope painted of a domestic worker who had an undying loyalty to their slaveholders.

The image of mammy and Uncle Tom to name a few, were sought to legitimize the institution of slavery, which led the mammy archetype to increase popularity after the American Civil War and into the mid 1900's.

Mass media was attached to the likeness of mass produced consumers goods from flour to motor oil, which solidified the mammy archetype as a trusted figure in the white imaginations. We can see traces of what it was spoken in the last paragraph by mentioning the concept of discriminatory advertisement which is the practice of including African bodies that will please the white sensitivity.

The cartoon output of Warner Bros. during its most active period sometimes had censorship problems that were complex than those of movie features', as unlike films which they were censored in the script, the animated shorts were passed upon only when completed, which made producers cautious about the restrictions.

References:

1. Popular and Pervasive Sterotypes of African Americans: https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/popular-and-pervasive-stereotypes-african-americans
2. Wikipedia Censored Eleven: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censored_Eleven
3. Marketing has a Colorism Problem: https://hbr.org/2021/05/marketing-still-has-a-colorism-problem