Trump Amplifies “No LGBTQ” Symbol Using Nazi-Era Imagery in Military Ad Post

https://meidasnews.com/news/trump-amplifies-no-lgbtq-symbol-using-nazi-era-imagery-in-military-ad-post

 

Trump’s Truth Social post has a pink triangle overlayed with a prohibition symbol

Trump posted an article to his Truth Social account this weekend featuring a deeply troubling image: a pink triangle—the Nazi-era symbol used to identify and persecute gay men in concentration camps—covered with a red prohibited sign. Historically, the LGBTQ+ rights movement reclaimed the pink triangle as a symbol of resistance, pride, and remembrance.

Trump

Trump

Truth Social

The article itself titled, “Army recruitment ads look quite different under Trump,” published by the Washington Times praises Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for refocusing the military on “lethality” and reversing Biden-era policies that embraced diversity, including ads featuring LGBTQ+ soldiers.

Holocaust Museum Exhibit of Nazi concentration camp badges

Holocaust Museum Exhibit of Nazi concentration camp badges

Max, Wikipedia Commons

The image, placed in the context of military recruitment, strongly suggests a rejection of LGBTQ+ service members, at least in the terms of recruitment, under Trump’s leadership.

Military ads recruitment illustration

Military ads recruitment illustration

Washington Times

Trump’s choice to amplify such an image is particularly alarming given Hegseth’s past statements.

Prisoners wearing triangles in the concentration camp at Sachsenhausen, Germany, December 19, 1938

Prisoners wearing triangles in the concentration camp at Sachsenhausen, Germany, December 19, 1938

Heinrich Hoffman Collection / NARA

He has long opposed LGBTQ+ inclusion in the military, previously criticizing the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

Hegseth 2

Pete Hegseth Lamented Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Change, Women in the Military

Now, under his leadership, Trump appears to be reinforcing the idea that LGBTQ+ individuals are unwelcome in the armed forces—not just through policy but through amplifying symbolic messaging with disturbing historical roots.

Pete for Senate

Pete Hegseth Campaigned to “Uphold Traditional Marriage” During 2012 Senate Run

Trump’s amplification of a Nazi-era symbol to promote this shift sends a message signaling a return to exclusionary policies that many believed were left in the past.

Some clips from Adam Mockler

We are siding with Russia and that’s really bad!

Some TizzyEnt clips. They are mostly short with the longest a few seconds over 5 minutes.

Trump order targets transgender troops and ‘radical gender ideology’

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/01/28/trump-transgender-troops-military-hegseth/

tRump is old and … intellectually challenged so he can not understand gender identification.  A lot of older people can’t handle the changes in society and the acceptance of new ways to be / live.  As far as the religious fanatics pushing the hate against LGBTQ+ people including trans people are cis people who do not feel a disconnect between their sex organs and their feelings of who they are in society.  Just as the same religious straight people can not understand the attraction gay people feel.  They don’t feel that way themselves, so don’t see being cis and straight being the only acceptable way to live as a problem. Instead they think because they don’t feel that way then no one else does so it must be a choice.  Or a mental defect to be cured.  They refuse to accept medical science / medical studies and all the evidence that it is real, exists, and normal.  We learn as a society and we as we grow in understanding we learn to accept new things.  Medical science and medical research tell us that being trans and gay is normal, also that medical care that affirms those feelings is important along with necessary.   Just because I don’t like a food or feel like I want to eat it, doesn’t mean no one likes it or don’t want to eat it.  But liking a food I don’t doesn’t mean it is a mental illness or makes a person unfit.  

saying that the U.S. military has been “afflicted with radical gender ideology to appease activists” and that “many mental and physical health conditions are incompatible with active duty.”

 

It also takes aim at transgender people in personal terms, accusing them of living in conflict “with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life.”

 

“A man’s assertion that he is a woman, and his requirement that others honor this falsehood, is not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member,” it adds.

 

Newly confirmed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a former National Guard soldier who has said that “being transgendered in the military causes complications and differences,”

The above by the drunken wife abuser accused sexual predator Hegseth is wrong.  The only complication and differences caused by having transgender people in the military is not the trans people but the fundamentalist religious people / Christians like Hegseth who feel the entire LGBTQ+ is an abomination to his god and so shouldn’t be allowed to exist.   Or worse mix with the real children of god, people with good morals like the drunken wife abuser accused sexual predator Hegseth. This issue over transgender people in the military reminds me of when Clinton tried to make it legal for gay people to be out in the military.   Senator Sam Nunn went on a Navy ship and said no real service member wanted to be sleeping near, working next to, or using the bathroom facilities with the dreaded gay person, which some churches were desperate to keep from being accepted and live openly in society.  The anti-gay people claimed all sorts of horrors if gay people were allowed to service openly from the collapse of the military to mass exit of members.   None of that happened, the military stayed the world’s best and there was no mass fleeing from the service. 

These same people with the same hater mind set made the same claims about first black people being allowed to serve, and then when the military was desegregated.  The same was said of women in combat roles.  It always comes from the haters who use their personal bigotry as the metric for how everyone should be and feel.  And they never admit when all the horrors they claim will happen if those they are against get equality and inclusion never happen.  They just pick a new target and repeat the same attacks and hates.  Now it is the trans people’s turn to be accused of all the horrible things that blacks were, the gays were, that never were true.  Trans people have served openly for some time, studies show that they do not harm the military or lower the military readiness / effectiveness in any way.  Sadly far too many of our general public who know nothing about the military or who never served think they are experts and again feel that everyone has the same bigotries, racist, and misogynistic feelings they do.  Being in other countries or even different parts of the US will open closed minds.  Harris did not lose by much, she almost won.  It is too bad these hateful ignorant people are going to be able to enshrine their hates and bigotries into law and hurt so many people in the next few years. But remember if we can get the House then most of the damage can do with the passing of laws will stop, and if we can regain the Senate we can stop hateful ideolog judges from being installed.   It is up to us to get out the vote.   Hugs

  ==================================================================

The executive order took aim at transgender individuals in personal terms, noting that physical and mental health conditions make them “incompatible” with military service.

January 28, 2025 at 12:28 a.m. EST
 
The Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. (Joshua Roberts/Reuters)
 

President Donald Trump on Monday night issued an executive order targeting transgender service members and an array of other people, saying that the U.S. military has been “afflicted with radical gender ideology to appease activists” and that “many mental and physical health conditions are incompatible with active duty.”

 
 

The list of conditions identified could affect tens of thousands of people depending on how it is interpreted. It cites diagnoses “that require substantial medication or medical treatment to bipolar and related disorders, eating disorders, suicidality, and prior psychiatric hospitalization.”

The order calls for the Pentagon to adopt updated policies on the medical standards required for military service. It also takes aim at transgender people in personal terms, accusing them of living in conflict “with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life.”

 
 

“A man’s assertion that he is a woman, and his requirement that others honor this falsehood, is not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member,” it adds.

 

The order builds on a previous directive, issued hours after Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration, overturning a 2021 Biden administration measure that permitted transgender troops to serve openly, which reversed an earlier ban from Trump’s first term in office. The new executive order does not immediately ban transgender individuals from serving, but it directs the Defense Department and the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Coast Guard, to revise medical standards and submit a report to the president outlining steps to comply with the directive.

While the Defense Department does not keep track of the number of transgender personnel across the force, the latest shift in the long-running policy back-and-forth could impact thousands of service members. It also represents one aspect of a far-reaching Trump administration effort to roll back diversity initiatives across the government.

 
 

Trump signed the new transgender order along with others calling for the reinstatement of troops who were discharged during the Biden administration for refusing coronavirus vaccines; the elimination of diversity, equity and inclusion offices in the Defense Department; and the creation of an “Iron Dome for America,” Trump’s vision for expanded missile defense.

Newly confirmed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a former National Guard soldier who has said that “being transgendered in the military causes complications and differences,” promised in his first remarks to reporters at the Pentagon on Monday that he would ensure implementation of Trump’s priorities, which also include ordering the military to guard the southern border.

“This is happening quickly,” he said. “Our job is lethality and readiness and warfighting.”

 
 

In a November podcast, Hegseth said personnel receiving medication related to gender transitions would be unable to serve effectively.

Advocates for transgender people have said that there may be as many as 15,000 in the U.S. military. A 2016 Defense Department survey found that about 9,000 identified as such. Both figures represent less than 1 percent of the 2 million people who serve in the active-duty, reserve or National Guard components of the military.

For decades, the military considered transgender people to be sexual deviants who were unfit for service. But in 2016, after a year-long policy review, the Obama administration repealed a ban on transgender service, citing the value of ensuring that all qualified individuals were able to serve their country in uniform.

 

“We have to have access to 100 percent of America’s population for our all-volunteer forces to be able to recruit from among them the most highly qualified — and to retain them,” Defense Secretary Ash Carter said at the time.

 

The repeal followed the Obama administration in 2011 overturning the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, which prohibited gay service members from serving openly, and the 2015 repeal of a ban on women serving in a wide array of jobs in ground combat units.

After taking office in 2017, Trump announced a ban on transgender military service in a series of tweets, without notifying key defense officials. The move triggered a scramble in the Pentagon, with then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis ordering another policy review.

 

In 2018, Mattis adopted a new policy with Trump’s tacit support that softened the full ban, effectively prohibiting new transgender service members from joining the military but allowing those already in uniform to stay on.

The ruling was challenged in court, but the Supreme Court upheld Trump’s partial ban in 2019. The military began enforcing that policy later that year.

President Joe Biden quickly reversed Trump’s ban in an executive order after taking office in 2021.

Republicans doing what? Causing what?

Republicans are against the public having healthcare for some reason.  Paxton, Texas leadership, and a good segment of the republican part simply want non-white people / all immigrants to suffer as much as possible.  As if just by living they have committed the worst possible crime.  Plus dreamers?  Look republicans keep passing laws that kids are property so they had no choice being dragged to the US with their parents.  Plus they have been here, raised here, never caused problems, added to the economy.   Denying them healthcare is stupid and just trying to hurt them.  Plus it costs taxpayers more as dreamers need care they must have but can’t afford to pay for.   Hugs

PSA: migrants desperately seeking shelter may be in your area. Call ICE asap if seen.

Thumbnail

Government run by gang thugs.  That is what maga and the maga republicans want.  tRump has always been a mob boss wannabe but was never good enough to really do it.  He is a school yard bully who never grew up and has only regressed over the years.  He thinks might make right, and that who ever can bully or threaten the most gets all the toys and their way on everything.   Is this how we think things should be run?  Is this for the good of the country?  And if this is the way the republicans are going to act then how should democrats respond?  Corporate media both print and video are afraid to attack tRump so they ganged up on Biden and the democrats, but they never pointed out that tRump was everything they attacked Biden for being.  Now the brownshirts and thugs are making congress people offers they don’t dare refuse.  Hugs

In recent days, allies of Trump adopted an approach that is not novel for the president-elect and his followers: Make life extremely uncomfortable for anyone who dares to oppose him. The swarm of MAGA attacks that Sen. Joni Ernst has experienced is a warning of what’s in store for others who express skepticism of his personnel choices. 

Read the full article. As I noted yesterday, among the attacks on Ernst are threats to resurface allegations of an adulterous affair.

If you are a bigot who hates gay people then you believe this false idea.  If you are a racist you believe that black / brown people are inferior and erode standards.  In fact that was said about blacks when the military was first integrated.  However that notion got totally destroyed due to the bravery and proficiency of the black divisions in the 1930s and 1940s.   Same with gay people.  Most people in the military don’t care your sex partner as longs as they are not forced against their will to join you.  It is only the bigots, the fundamentalist religious people.  It is the Christians like Hegseth who has said that the goal is to make the military Christians who want all the gay people out.  Notice it was gays he objected to, not lesbians.  The upper military brass has studied this, the idea of LGBTQ+ in the military and all the studies show that the military benefits greatly for allowing the LGBTQ+ to serve openly.  Look let’s be honest the military was full of gay people in the 1980s when I was in, both the Navy and the Army.  We just stood the chance of getting blackmailed or discharged if a bigot like Hegseth found out.  Again all of maga want desperately to return to the fantasy time of the 1950s thinking that was the best of times, but only if you were a white straight cis male.   The rest of the population suffered from the unfair laws.   Hugs.  

New: Pete Hegseth Lamented Don't Ask Don't Tell Change, Women in the MilitaryThe Trump nominee's views on women and LGBTQ+ individuals raise questions about his fitness

PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes.bsky.social) 2024-12-10T13:10:06.098Z

From the linked article which I suggest reading.

Hegseth’s views risk alienating large segments of the armed forces and undermining morale by suggesting that certain groups are inherently less capable of serving. The Department of Defense has long moved toward embracing equality and diversity as pillars of strength. A leader who dismisses these values could jeopardize decades of progress and fail to inspire trust and cohesion among service members.

In a time when military challenges require unity and innovation, the Secretary of Defense must represent the best of modern leadership—respect for diversity, evidence-based policy, and a commitment to national security above outdated biases. Pete Hegseth’s comments reveal a personal belief system with negative views which raises doubts about his fitness to lead the military

This is more gang thuggery.  Notice this part:  … as he threatened local officials to open the city and its county jail to the will of federal immigration agents.     Hugs

The very same weaponizing the government and the DOJ to attack enemies that tRump and the maga right claims is happening under Biden was routine under tRump.   Notice the use of the deep state tools to gather information including personal information which should have been protected legally.  That is why all these people who claim tRump won’t be vengeful and won’t weaponize the government are just blowing smoke, he will and he has.  Hugs

Oh wow, think of all those poor people who voted for tRump because they believe everything he says and think he is a smart businessman.  Too bad no one tried to explain to them that tariffs are paid by the consumer, that means the person buying the item.  Oh wait yes there were people trying hard to tell them that.  In fact the black woman they just couldn’t vote for was saying that very clearly as was everyone but right wing media that is deep into the cult of tRump.  Hugs 

Fox Business: “Dollar Tree could drop some products if tariffs are enacted”

PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes.bsky.social) 2024-12-10T17:58:54.369Z

This man has shown nothing but contempt for all normal behavior and respect for the those in congress.  He has done a lot to destroy the post office and to make it unreliable.  Remember that he was destroying sorting machines and shortening delivery routes during an election so many mail in ballots never got counted.  In deeply rural areas no other mail delivery service covers that area so they depend on the post office.  The post office is the only government service mandated in the constitution.  Remember DeJoy is a multimillionaire who owns a company that competes with and contracts with the post office that he is in charge of.  Sounds like a conflict of ethics that needs real instigating.  Hugs

As normal Musk is spouting off on stuff he knows nothing about.  Homelessness is caused by several factors, a major one being the cost of housing.  With hedge funds and wealthy investment companies buying up all the housing in an area and jacking up the rents while providing no maintenance support.   They don’t care, a large profit is demanded.  The fact that people can not afford to live these days because people like Musk demand ever more profit, a man who has so much money he could waste 44 billion on a whim and not suffer any lowering of his lifestyle.  That is what life is like for these clowns.  They have no conception of what life is like for the rest of us. By the way, the article he cites as his proof says the exact opposite of what Musk claims.  That is why you need to read more than the headlines and look at the pictures.  Providing housing does work, but as the article referenced states the programs need the correct amount of funding and supervision.  Hugs

 

The article does not support the contention that providing shelter to people who need it is fruitless or that all unhoused people are criminals. Rather, the article details how the converted hotels in San Francisco were “underfunded and understaffed,” leading to substandard living conditions.

Read the full article. As the linked piece notes, a large percentage of the homeless are children, veterans, queer kids rejected by their parents, and women escaping domestic violence. But they’re all violent, drug-addicted liars, according to Musk, whose tweet currently has 25 million views.

Delusion run strong in this one.  Need I say more.  A fox entertainment host is also claiming tRump will buy a large track of property for the US making more states.   Hugs

Donald Trump is once again “joking” about annexing Canada into the United States, this time calling Justin Trudeau the “Governor” of the “Great State of Canada.”Totally normal and not crazy at all

Republicans Against Trumpism (@rpsagainsttrump.bsky.social) 2024-12-10T05:53:56.198Z

My reading headlines and talking about the stories11 19 2024

This is a completely different video than the one I posted before.  I am sorry that I posted that one.  I hated the glitches in it.   So I trashed it.  I did it before I looked to see if It had comments.  If you left comments please put them on this one.  This one is longer and more in depth, but done with a higher resolution and done at 3 am this morning so I sound better and more coherent.  There are no glitches of either video or audio that I could see / hear.  I hope you will enjoy it.  Today I am going to dump both computers starting at 12:30 pm.  I have the laptop running if I need it.  Hugs.  Scottie

I read a bunch of headlines I have in open tabs and I talk about the stories they pertain to briefly. Nothing in depth, just generalized information in the public sphere of information. If there is a topic you wish me to cover in more detail please mention it in the comments. Hugs

How Project 2025 – a right-wing wish list for Trump’s second term – threatens LGBTQ+ rights

https://www.thepinknews.com/2024/11/06/project-2025-donald-trump-lgbtq/

https://btv.social/1743706_41167/#cp Video link

Project 2025, assuming it still needs to be explained at this point, is an infamous proposed manifesto for the ultra-conservative faction of the Republican Party and, many believe, Donald Trump’s second term.

And with many LGBTQ+ Americans waking up on 6 November to the bleak and shocking reality of a second Trump presidency, it feels like a particularly good time to unpick what the document could signify for queer peoples’ rights in the US over the next four years.

Unsurprisingly, while Project 2025 promises to “take down the ‘Deep State’ and return the government to the people”, it also threatens to shred the rights and advancements of the LGBTQ+ community in the US.

The handbook’s authors claim that one of the biggest problems facing the US today is the “toxic normalization of transgenderism with drag queens and pornography invading school libraries.”

Project 2025 goes on to say that “transgender ideology” is one form of “pornography” linked to the “sexualization of children”. In total, “gender” is mentioned 111 times, and “LGBT” or “LGBTQ” 18 times, in the handbook.

LGBTQ+ rights would all but disappear if Project 2025 came to fruition. (Getty)

Viewed as a sort of right-wing wish-list, Project 2025 pledges to strip away anti-discrimination policies, making it easier to target and discriminate against LGBTQ+ people.

Published by the hard-line right-wing Heritage Foundation, the document calls for the removal of terms such as “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” from federal rules and legislation, and the revoking of regulations prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, transgender status and sex characteristics.

Project 2025 set out plans to restrict the application of the Supreme Court’s decision in Bostock vs. Clayton County, which extended workplace protections against sex discrimination to LGBTQ+ employees.

In addition, it plans to restrict access to healthcare for transgender people, something it refers to as a form of “child abuse”. Its authors also want to see trans healthcare no longer being covered by insurance schemes Medicare and Medicaid, and an end to anti-discrimination rules based on gender identity and sexual orientation.

In addition, there are plans to reverse policies allowing transgender people to serve in the military, a ban that was initially brought in under the Trump administration but reversed by president Joe Biden. If enacted, Project 2025 would expel transgender servicemen and women as well as those living with HIV.

Donald Trump
Donald Trump has tried to distance himself from the hard-line right-wing document. (Getty)

The State Department’s LGBTQ+ equality initiatives in Africa would also be axed. In other words, there would be no effort to stop draconian anti-queer laws being passed in countries such as Uganda.

In terms of education, the conservative blueprint is even more staunchly anti-LGBTQ+. It calls for a ban on students using names or pronouns that don’t match the sex on their birth certificate, and no school employee would be “forced” to use a pupil’s chosen pronouns

It document outlines ideas to remove LGBTQ+-inclusive curriculums and policies from schools, claiming that “critical race theory and gender ideology” are “poisoning and indoctrinating children with leftist ideologies”. Instead, families “comprised of a married mother, father and their children” would be prioritized.

Despite many of its authors being one-time Trump administration advisors, the former president claims to know “nothing about Project 2025” or who is behind it, saying: “I disagree with some of the things they’re saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal.”

And two of his campaign advisors insisted: “President Trump’s campaign has been very clear that Project 2025 had nothing to do with the campaign, did not speak for the campaign, and should not be associated with the campaign in any way.”

A spokesperson for Project 2025 has even told CNN that it “does not speak for any candidate or campaign.”

However, Democrats have continued to point to links between the 922-page document and Trump. As he’s now won the election, will Trump finally admit to having any involvement with Project 2025? Only time will tell.

Peace & Justice History for 10/28:

Things it’s important we remember, and things to Never Forget.

October 28, since 304
Catholics celebrate the feast of St. Fidelis of Como.  According to one legend, Fidelis deserted the Roman Army’s Theban Legion during Emperor Maximian’s persecution of Christians.  In another legend, he was assigned to guard Christian prisoners at Milan and secured freedom for five of them.
October 28, 1818
Abigail Adams, former First Lady of the United States, died. 
Many of her ideas, documented in her correspondance with her husband, John (later elected president), influenced the government of the United States.  She was politically active to the point where opponents referred to her as “Mrs. President” [see March 31, 1776]

Abigail Adams
More about Abigail Adams 
October 28, 1886

The Statue of Liberty, a gift of friendship from the people of France to the people of the United States, is dedicated in New York Harbor by President Grover Cleveland.
Originally known as “Liberty Enlightening the World,” the statue was proposed by the French historian Edouard de Laboulaye to commemorate the Franco-American alliance during the American Revolution. Designed by French sculptor Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi, the 151-foot statue was the form of a woman with an uplifted arm holding a torch.
In 1903, a bronze plaque mounted inside the pedestal’s lower level was inscribed with “The New Colossus,”a sonnet by American poet Emma Lazarus that welcomed immigrants to the United States with the declaration,“Give me your tired, your poor, / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,/ The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. / Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me. / I lift my lamp beside the golden door.” 
Read more 
October 28, since 1940
In Greece, Ohi Day (meaning Day of No) marks the refusal of Greece to submit to the Axis Powers.
October 28, 1950

Birth of Sihem Bensedrine, Tunisian human rights activist and journalist.  In 2008, she was awarded the Danish Peace Fund Prize for her commitment to democracy and the rule of law in the Arab world.
About Sinem Bensefrine  
October 28, 1962
Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev announces the removal of Soviet missle bases in Cuba, ending the Cuban Missile Crisis.
October 28, 1984

Sandinista Daniel Ortega won the general election for president of Nicaragua, and later attempted to make peace with the United States. 
The United States replied by continuing to support the Contras
.

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryoctober.htm#october28

Own Jones and Israel and Gaza

‘ERASE All Palestinians’ – Popular Israeli Podcasters Claim Most Share Their Genocidal Fantasy