The conservative conference Trump spoke at today featured an exhibit on gay conversion therapy
The convention also featured an exhibit on gay conversion therapy, which seeks to navigate homosexuals and their family members from an anti-gay perspective.
The Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX) organization, which was founded in 1998 "to be an alternative to the misinformed gay family groups which insist that parents can only prove their love for their gay child if they support gay rights and affirm their child's self-proclaimed gay identity," distributed a number of pamphlets and literature about guiding families on what do when they learn their child is gay. The pamphlets include two descriptions of the types of homosexuals: "the struggler" and "the seeker."
The struggler, PFOX says, is "someone wrestling with unwanted feelings of sexual attraction for the same-sex."
"This person is struggling to understand what it all means, but often feels that no one will understand them or their struggle," a pamphlet read.
The seeker is "someone who has been, or currently, on the journey of overcoming unwanted same-sex attraction."
"They are the 'ex-gay' - the person who at one time perhaps publicly identified as gay, but made a decision to change their life," it read.
At the PFOX booth, volunteers were also distributing small buttons that read "Ex-Gay Is OK!" in Comic Sans font.
"Through fundraising efforts, PFOX raised enough money for Darryl to reclaim his masculinity by undergoing numerous surgeries to reverse his appearance as female," the pamphlet read.
"Affirming gender dysphoria via public education and legal policies will confuse children and parents, leading more children to present to 'gender clinics' where they will be given puberty-blocking drugs," another document being distributed by PFOX claimed. "This, in turn, virtually ensures that they will 'choose' a lifetime of sterility, toxic cross-sex hormones, and likely consider unnecessary surgical mutilation of their healthy body parts as young adults."
However, during his speech, Trump did not address LGTBQ issues as he did during the 2016 presidential campaign. During his speech at the 2016 Republican National Convention, Trump made a point of calling on the GOP to defend gay and transgender Americans.
"As your president, I will do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens from the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology," he said.