HOMOPHOBIA

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Many items on all sides activate and express homophobia. Some depict Trump in a sexual relationship with international “strong-man” type authoritarian leaders. He is regularly placed into a sexually submissive relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a notorious homophobe. Others show him engaging is sexualized weapon play with an infantilized Kim Jong Un, autocratic leader of North Korea. One 2020 T-shirt takes the letters LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) and relabels these . The gun is the type of assault rifle used in the 2016 Pulse Nightclub shooting, and the design first appeared on a threatening flyer anonymously mailed to a LGBTQ rights organization. A related T-shirt changes the “B” in LGBT to Brazil’s homophobic and strong man type president Jair Bolsonaro. In 2016, detractors mocked Hillary Clinton as a secret lesbian. Underlying all these aspersions, on both left and right, is a bias against assertive women, feminine men, and LGBTQ+ people, casting them as “abnormal” and unqualified for political office.