Shortly after Trump’s administration took office, the White House website saw unusual and questionable changes. In the past, presidents have geared the White House’s webpage to fit their administration, but not quite like how Trump is.
According to an article written by Jason Silverstein and published on http://www.nydailynews.com/, “In the first few days of the Trump administration, whitehouse.gov lost its Spanish pages and content about civil rights, LGBT rights, global warming and regulations – while adding a new statement about America’s ‘dangerous anti-police atmosphere.’” These changes fall in line with some of President Trump’s extremely controversial policy ideas.
Samantha Moore / Art Director
Some fear for the direction that our country is headed towards, and with Trump navigating the path, we as a nation are about to embark upon some people already feeling targeted. Many groups are negatively affected from these changes made to https://www.whitehouse.gov., but just because Trump and his administration have removed these pages doesn’t mean they won’t be restructured and placed back up on the website.
It mainly just shows where Trump’s priorities are, especially after ridding the page of these import issues to instead include support for law enforcement and gun owners’ rights to defend themselves. We at The Equinox feel as though the United States really and truly is a melting pot of people who come from different race, gender, religious and political backgrounds.
To take down these specific pages from the White House’s web page, may make some feel as though the newly-elected administration views some citizens above others in our country. We at The Equinox feel as though this is especially true in the case of both Hispanics and those who are a part of the LGBTQA+ community in our country.
According to the article mentioned above on http://www.nydailynews.com/, “Trump is now the first President since Bill Clinton to not have a Spanish version of the website.” This is especially troubling when we look at the number of Spanish speaking citizens that make up our country.
According to an article written by Franco Ordoñez and published on the http://www.miamiherald.com/, “The United States, whose population includes about 52 million Spanish speakers, doesn’t have an official language.” This would then mean that millions of Americans are being excluded from accessing the White House’s site. Aside from that, Trump has voiced his views about Hispanics time and time again throughout his campaign.
According to an article written by Noah Bierman and published on the http://www.latimes.com/, “During a Republican primary debate, Trump lashed out at former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush when he spoke Spanish. ‘This is a country where we speak English,’ Trump said.”
Yes, we do speak English in the United States, but that isn’t the only language we speak. There are millions and millions of American’s who speak other languages. Also, seeing as the United States doesn’t have a national official language, Trump is out of line in saying that, regardless of legislation being primarily written in English. Due to these changes, people from the Hispanic, LGBTQ+ and many other groups are showing their concerns, and rightfully so.
The LGBTQ+ community has made great strides over the years and many worry that Trump’s new administration will go back on the progress they’ve made. With the LGBTQ+ rights page absent from the White House’s website, it’s no wonder some feel threatened. At this point, we will have to wait and see if and what sort of restructuring occurs on the website. We at The Equinox are curious to see what other sorts of changes are to come on https://www.whitehouse.gov.
