The major difference between Joe Biden and Donald Trump summed up in two simple tweets

Nov 03 2020
Written by Emma Powys Maurice

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Joe Biden would reverse Donald Trump’s most transphobic policies. (Brendan Smialowski/Jim Watson/AFP/Getty)

America heads to the polls today to vote for either Joe Biden or Donald Trump, two candidates whose views, values and deeds couldn’t possibly be more different.

The enormous gulf between Donald Trump and Joe Biden has grown with every day of the presidential campaign, drawing a bitter divide that’s polarising voters more than ever before.

For many, it’s hardly a difficult choice: one candidate’s won seven elections and has 36 years’ experience in the Senate, while the other’s a reality TV star who didn’t even win the popular vote. One paid nearly $300,000 in taxes in 2019 alone, while the other paid just $750 and charged his $70,000 hairstyling bill to the American public.

When it comes to LGBT+ rights, that divide is even more pronounced. And on the morning of election day, it was perfectly expressed in two polar opposite tweets.

“I believe LGBTQ+ rights are human rights — and they are on the ballot tomorrow,” wrote Joe Biden, sharing a stirring video of LGBT+ activism.

“Pride is action. Pride is community. Pride is legislation. Pride is participation. Pride is family. Pride is patriotic. Pride is protest. Pride is voting,” read the words on the screen, accompanied by footage of Kamala Harris speaking for the Human Rights Campaign.

I believe LGBTQ+ rights are human rights — and they are on the ballot tomorrow.

Vote: https://t.co/eoxT07d7QB pic.twitter.com/b5YcKNEpWI

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) November 3, 2020

But if you dared to venture over to Donald Trump’s Twitter, you found something quite different.

The leader of the free world has chosen to cap off his presidential campaign with a bizarre supercut of himself performing a limp fist-pumping dance to the Village People’s “YMCA”, a song that is definitely, definitely not about gay sex. Definitely not.

Given that Trump is one of the most anti-LGBT+ presidents in modern history, we can only assume he’s unaware of the song’s significance as a stonking gay anthem.

It seems he’s chosen it specifically for its repetition of the words “young man”, a reference to the often-boasted fact that, at 74, he’s three whole years younger than his opponent.

Trump’s turned the tune into his own personal soundtrack at rallies, along with another Village People hit “Macho Man”, and has refused to stop doing so despite the band’s repeated insistence that he cease and desist.

So while the sight of a virulently homophobic president appropriating gay anthems may seem contradictory, in an ironic way it’s the perfect song choice for a president who has wilfully engaged in the suppression of LGBT+ rights throughout his presidency.