Bloomberg Attempts to Appeal to LGBTQ Voters

Former mayor of NYC and current presidential hopeful Michael Bloomberg recently released his plans to help improve the day-to-day lives of those in the LGBTQ community. The 2020 candidate tweeted out, “We must protect the youngest members of the LGBTQ+ community by making our schools safer and more inclusive. We will end discrimination in adoptions and will ban conversion therapy.”

Bloomberg has taken to social media several times to declare his alliance with the queer community:

As president, I will protect every member of the LGBTQ+ community.

We’ll close disparities in health care access and quality, stop violence against transgender people, and advocate for equal rights.

We cannot settle for anything less – and I won’t. https://t.co/6xLXlbX0Gw pic.twitter.com/klILOx32yg

— Mike Bloomberg (@MikeBloomberg) January 28, 2020

I believe in a future where all LGBTQ+ Americans can be who they are and love who they want. #ProudwithMike

Stand with us: https://t.co/VJeSRBmB0e pic.twitter.com/XXTiU1gMnF

— Mike Bloomberg (@MikeBloomberg) January 29, 2020

As mayor, I pledged to ensure LGBTQ+ New Yorkers were protected from hatred, violence and discrimination. As president, I’ll extend this pledge to all of America.

Proud to have my friend @TimGunn standing with me in the fight for equality. https://t.co/hTcAuvKxYG

— Mike Bloomberg (@MikeBloomberg) January 29, 2020

The words on the former, three-term mayor’s website are bold and refreshing to read from a former republican; however, they remain modest compared to the 18-page and 12-page plans released by democratic candidates Pete Buttigieg and Elizabeth Warren. Bloomberg voices himself as a proponent of LGBTQ rights, but his history shows he appealed a marriage equality ruling when he was mayor of NYC and was still defending “stop and frisk” as early as last year.

Bloomberg’s website goes on to state that, “Mike will pass and sign the Equality Act into law, ensuring that LGBTQ+ Americans have consistent, non-discrimination protection in a variety of areas, including employment, housing, and access to credit, just to name a few.” The last part of that line “just to name a few” is slightly frustrating from a voter’s perspective because those who are a part of the LGBTQ community are discriminated against daily across the country. A few changed laws will not create instant equality.

Bloomberg must change not only the policy but the culture that surrounds those who are not white, straight, cisgender, or male. Furthermore, throughout his website, Bloomberg is only referred in the third person. I can’t imagine that Buttigieg and Warren wrote their plans by themselves, but whomever wrote it down knew they stood behind those plans and included the right words such as “I” and “We.”  In Bloomberg’s plan, we keep seeing “Mike” and “he,” which implies his plans are impersonal and not his own.

Rather a vain attempt to get extra voters before the Iowa caucuses, LGBTQ folks remain in search of a candidate who will truly protect and serve them alongside the rest of America.