This isn’t River City, and Trump isn’t the Music Man
This morning I checked in on a GoFundMe campaign. I like GoFundMe. It’s a way to give an extended community a chance to participate in charitable or entrepreneurial endeavors. It can be effective in helping friends out or funding special events.
One event that organizers have turned to GoFundMe to pay for is the “DeploraBall Picnic,” the brainchild of Peter Boykin. If you don’t recognize that name, just think these three words: “Gays for Trump.”
Yes this deluded man is one of the driving forces behind a movement that is so “alt-right” it’s just “alt-wrong.” According to Boykin’s Facebook page, his group wants to “end political correctness, build unity, strengthen the economy and Make America Great Again!” Funny way to do that, by backing a party that has played a major role in leading America into two economic disasters, the Great Depression and the Great Recession.
Boykin supports a political party that has historically increased the deficit at the expense of the middle class and poor Americans. But hey Peter, don’t let facts get in your way. After all, your buddy Trump doesn’t.
Mr. Boykin’ latest venture, a 4th of July Picnic, looks destined to make the Trump inauguration “crowd” look like a real crowd, considering at last check his goal of $25,000 is only $24,875 away from success after one month. Guess they will be celebrating by eating “alternative hot dogs” and drinking “alternative beer” (aka “bread and water”).
The whole venture begs the question, “Gays for Trump”? Really?
I mean, seriously, how can we expect any kind of protections for LGBTQ Americans from an administration that has appointed notoriously anti-LGBTQ people to every level of government. Top that off with a hostile vice president whose record on equal rights is dismal, and I can only think that Boykin is in need of serious psychotherapy.
Perhaps it is the same malady affecting the unemployed coal miners who saw Trump as the savior of the coal industry when he promised to reopen the mines and bring American industry back to life. The problem is that use of coal is declining world-wide, ceding to cheaper natural gas and more environmentally-friendly renewables.
Yet, the miners believed Trump, because they wanted to believe. It is more of a matter of faith than reality, and putting faith in a politician’s promise is only slightly smarter than putting faith in a billionaire who has made a fortune selling lies.
The “Gays for Trump” want to believe that the 45th president will be some kind of savior, when in reality he is just a skilled con man preying on the misguided beliefs of delusional people.
Of course, being gay myself, I can find an analogy in a Broadway musical. The Music Man told the story of just such a con man. He comes to River City and discovers a pool table has just been delivered to a local establishment.
Seizing the opportunity, he convinces the town that the evils of “pool” will destroy their town, its morality and civilization in general. The answer? Band instruments!
Just imagine Donald Trump, wearing a sparkling uniform, convincing America that what he is selling is the answer to the “disaster” our country has become: “Oh we’ve got trouble, right here in River City!”
And now we await delivery of the band instruments for an orchestra that doesn’t know how to play. We await the alleged returning jobs, but those that return will be for skilled workers in new fields and the workers waiting on them are not prepared. So even if they do return, the plight of the coal miners will remain bleak.
But they believe! And like the “Gays for Trump,” they think that belief, misguided though it is, will be enough.
Sadly thought, there is no happy ending in this performance. The parade will not happen, and the “Gays for Trump” will be left on the sidelines, watching and cheering as their freedoms and rights are swept away in the wake of the Trump march toward disaster.
Hardy Haberman is a longtime local LGBT activist and a board member of the Woodhull Freedom Alliance. His blog is at DungeonDiary.blogspot.com.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition March 17, 2017.