Intercessors for America, a network of pro-Trump prayer warriors that works closely with the White House, is celebrating the Trump administration’s refusal to acknowledge Pride Month—celebrated in the U.S. in June—and praising the State Department’s “hard shift away from promoting pride and ungodly sexuality,” which includes a ban on embassies displaying Pride flags.
In a Wednesday post, IFA suggest that people offer prayers of thanks for “leaders who are willing to stand for biblical truth” and to ask God to “help our leaders stand strong against the lies of the pride and LGBT agendas.”
“We prayed for an end to the erosion of biblical truth under President Biden, and those prayers have been answered through President Trump,” says IFA. “Let’s continue to pray for truth and wisdom for our leaders, as well as for policies that uphold God’s design for individuals, families, and society.”
IFA kicked off Pride Month on Monday by promoting a “prayer guide” that asks God to “expose the demonic agenda behind ‘Pride’ Month and the ever increasing push toward normalizing sexual perversion and transgender ideology.” It warns that LGBTQ-affirming Christians will face “eternal consequences” for “promoting what is detestable” to God.
While the Trump administration and many of its religious-right allies already “rededicated” America to God last month, IFA is promoting its own gathering to “rededicate” America at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. July 3 and 4. It will feature New Apostolic Reformation dominionist Dutch Sheets.
The Trump administration’s snub of Pride Month is far less harmful than the hostile rhetoric and brutal policies that make life more difficult for transgender Americans, but like those attacks it reflects the influence of Trump’s anti-equality religious-right political base.
Religious-right legal and political groups, with the help of right-wing Christian media outlets, have made some headway in reversing what had been growing Republican support for legal equality for LGBTQ people and same-sex couples. While marriage equality is supported by more than 80 percent of Democrats and two-thirds of independents, a recent Gallup poll shows support among Republicans dropping significantly to 35 percent.
That likely reflects the obsession of religious-right political and legal groups to overturn the Supreme Court’s marriage equality decision. The recently launched Greater Than coalition and campaign demonizes gay parents as selfish people carrying out a “destructive state-sanctioned gaslighting experiment on children.”
A bit of brighter news for equality advocates came in the form of a June 1 ruling by the DC Circuit Court of Appeals finding that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s ban on transgender people serving in the military was motivated by unconstitutional “animus.” The Court’s ruling was mixed; it upheld a lower court’s preliminary injunction against the Pentagon forcing out trans people currently serving in the armed forces, but it allowed the Pentagon to bar trans people from joining the military while legal challenges to the policy move through the courts.
