Republican chair celebrates Pride Month. Derision follows. The Arkansas record tells the story. – Arkansas Times

Happy #PrideMonth!@GOP is proud to have doubled our LGBTQ support over the last 4 years, and we will continue to grow our big tent by supporting measures that promote fairness and balance protections for LGBTQ Americans and those with deeply held religious beliefs.

— Ronna McDaniel (@GOPChairwoman) June 2, 2021

Yeah, this really happened. The chair of a party attacking LGBTQ rights at the local, state and federal level issued a Pride Month tweet. The reaction to the hypocrisy is about what you’d expect.

The Arkansas Republican State Committee should censure Ronna McDaniel for defying the party’s platform of LGBT discrimination.

Consider. The Arkansas majority-Republican legislature has banned local civil rights protections for gay people; created a pretext of religion for discrimination against LGBT people in employment, housing and public services; passed not one, but two, laws banning sports participation by transgender females; prohibited gender-affirming care for children; refuses to repeal a same-sex marriage prohibition; refuses to repeal the unconstitutional state law on sodomy; has had members describe LGBT people on the floor of the legislature, without pushback, as abominations; passed an explicitly anti-LGBT resolution;  defeated a hate crime bill because it protected LGBT people; took control of school curriculum related to sexual issues to allow parents to keep students from hearing about them, and, well, those will do for starters.

OK, Rep. Mary Bentley tried, but failed in her mean proposal to require teachers to refer to children by names on birth certificates, not names they have adopted. And a bid to allow insurance companies and health providers to refuse service to LGBT people came up short, too.

Fairness? A balance of protections? Barnyard waste is more like it.,

Chasten Buttigieg, spouse of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, had a sharp retort:

Those with “deeply held religious beliefs” are often the parents who force their LGBTQ children out of the home and onto the street. I’ve met with those kids. 40% of homeless youth in this country are LGBTQ. Re-visit your party’s platform before you open your mouth about #pride. https://t.co/z36BuFrQsO

— Chasten Glezman Buttigieg (@Chasten) June 3, 2021