NEW YORK – GLAAD, the world’s largest LGBTQ media advocacy organization, today released the following background information on Mercedes Schlapp, a former Fox News contributor and former President George W. Bush spokesperson, who is expected to join President Trump’s press office.

Schlapp once pushed false statistics on FOX News about alleged opposition to President Obama’s school guidance protecting transgender students, advocated for so-called “religious exemptions” that could harm LGBTQ Americans, and attacked protesters for speaking out against Vice President Mike Pence’s anti-LGBTQ record. If added to the White House Press Office, she will join anti-LGBTQ activists like Sarah Huckabee Sanders who holds professional ties to the anti-LGBTQ hate group National Organization for Marriage (NOM).

Read more about Mercedes Schlapp’s anti-LGBTQ record below and find more profiles on other anti-LGBTQ activists inside President Trump’s Administration at GLAAD’s Trump Accountability Project.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION: Mercedes Schlapp’s Anti-LGBTQ Record

• Argued that President Obama’s support for marriage equality was a “political ploy” that “represents the worst in politics.”
   
• Criticized LGBTQ rights activists for protesting anti-LGBTQ Vice President Mike Pence, saying Pence was “tagged as the enemy because he is Christian and believes in traditional values on marriage and supports religious freedoms” and that LGBTQ people “shove their liberal ideology in the face of others, in our schools and in the public square.”
   
• Pushed the myth that “two-thirds of Americans oppose the Obama guidelines on the transgender bathrooms.” [Quote starts at 5:20] Her numbers seemed to be based on right wing Rasmussen poll, which is an outlier even among past Rasmussen polls; more credible polling puts opposition at just over 50%.
   
• Advocated for “ensuring protection of religious liberties for those who believe in traditional marriage.” [Quote starts at 1:11:00]
   
• Gave policy speeches to anti-LGBTQ organizations like Heritage Foundation & Clare Booth Luce Institute.