British Olympic diver Tom Daley and his
Oscar-winning director husband, Dustin Lance Black, have criticized
President Donald Trump's opposition to LGBT rights.
The couple met in 2013 and married in
May.
Daley, 23, said that young people will
be affected by Trump's words and actions.
“Even if you've just got four years
of Trump, if you're eight years old and you have that between the
ages of eight and 12, you're hearing someone that is homophobic,
someone that is against every kind of diversity and not for equality
at all,” Daley said during an appearance on Attitude's
Heroes
podcast.
“If you're hearing that for four
years, they're going to grow up being racist homophobic and have
those same values and then that's going to be passed down to the
people that are two years younger,” he added.
Black, 43, added: “I think it's
critical to remember that there are places in this world where LGBT+
people are being put to death for who they are, they're being
imprisoned for who they are, and we're in a moment where without
American leadership on this issue, because that's gone, without
countries saying, 'Hey we’d better not hurt our LGBT+ brothers and
sisters because America will get mad at us and hurt our bottom line.'
Without that, leaders around the world are taking advantage of this
vacuum of influence coming from the United States.”
While Trump campaigned as a “friend”
to the LGBT community, his administration wants to keep transgender
people out of the armed forces and on Tuesday argued before the
Supreme Court that shop owners should be allowed to deny some
services to gay and lesbian couples.