LGBT Twitter Skewers Trump as He Dumps Birtherism, Blames Clinton for It

After having used it to rise to political notoriety over the past five years, Donald Trump finally reversed his stance Friday and stated what has long been accepted as fact: that President Obama was born in the United States of America. That's great news if you're the sort of person who looks to Donald Trump to tell you something is true after it has already been proved. Hopefully, next Trump will announce to all of his devoted doubters that that earth isn't flat.

Today's declaration comes with another conspiracy theory from the Republican presidential candidate -- he claims that Hillary Clinton was the progenitor of the birther movement. And while it's true that the racist, anti-Obama movement did originate with low-ranking Texan Hillary Clinton supporters, Clinton herself never endorsed the message. Trump's continued projection of his worst attributes onto his opponent (remember when he decided to call Clinton a "bigot" for a while?) is growing tiresome.

Trump is doing and saying so many horrifying, illogical, and untrue things every day that the media trying to unpack and respond to them is like Lucy and Ethel wrapping chocolates. Except instead of chocolate, it's hate, and instead of hilarious, it's horrific.

Still, it behooves us to really look at this latest tactic from the Trump camp and recognize the inherent racism and xenophobia that made Trump's espousal of birtherism take flight in the first place, and the narcissism and sexism that allow him to now try to pin it all on Clinton and never apologize. The mistrust of people who are not white, Christian, straight, cisgender, etc. is at the core of both the birther movement and all of the other problems with the current Republican Party. Making a black man prove he's American stems from the same fear that makes discriminatory bathroom laws pass and makes people call for walls to be built to keep immigrants out and background checks to be established for Muslims. LGBT people have experienced a great deal of discrimination and fear, and often feel a responsibilty to call out that kind of ugliness when we see it, especially when it's poised to potentially occupy the most powerful office in the world. LGBT Twitter users and our allies have a lot to say about Trump's latest feint, some tongue-in-cheek and some serious: