The Trump re-election campaign has hired Jenna Ellis, a frequent Fox News guest and anti-LGBTQ+ extremist as a senior legal advisor. According to Axios, Trump has said that he is “impressed” by Ellis’ TV appearances on Fox News, and that he wanted to “give her a bigger job.”
Ellis has often spoken out against gay and transgender people. Following the Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando that left 49 dead, Ellis wrote a column titled “Two Wrongs Do Not Make an LGBT Right,” saying:
“I’m disappointed conservatives are acquiescing to the LGBT agenda. Let me be clear – the Orlando shooting was absolutely terrible and tragic. But the response to this tragedy should not be embracing and advocating for gay rights.”
Ellis has even gone so far as to refer to the Stonewall Inn monument a “celebration of sin.”
She has also referred to higher rates of HIV among gay and bisexual men as an example of “God’s moral law and His supremacy.”
Since last year, Ellis has worked as the public policy director at the James Dobson Family Institute. Dobson, a Shreveport, LA native, is also the founder of the anti-LGBT organization Focus on the Family. Dobson also serves as a member of Trump’s Faith Advisory Council.
Ellis is a known supporter of conversion therapy, the dangerous and widely discredited practice that attempts to change a person’s gender identity or sexual orientation. In 2019, she testified at a Colorado state House committee hearing against a bill that would ban the practice.
In addition to her anti-LGBTQ views, Ellis has also made anti-Muslim statements online. In 2016, Ellis wrote “Islam is not freedom. It’s not peaceful. It is not Liberty. It is not American…Pray that this country will stand up for liberty and freedom. Not tolerance.”
According to Axios, Trump and Ellis only spoke for the first time by phone about a month before she was hired for the campaign. During the phone conversation, Trump invited Ellis to his Nov. 14 campaign rally in Louisiana, and by that weekend, Ellis had been appointed “senior legal adviser to the Trump 2020 campaign and to the President.”
Jenn Bentley is a freelance writer who’s work has been featured in publications such as Big Easy Magazine, Wander No More, The High Tech Society, Yahoo News, and more. Follow her on Twitter: @JennBentley_
