Fox host Jesse Watters claims that gay people are “nuts” to think that Donald Trump is going to attack LGBTQ+ rights in his second term in office while discussing a Philadelphia Inquirer article about how some LGBTQ+ people are getting guns to prepare for the next four years.

He insisted that, because Trump promised to be “fair” as president, that gay people have nothing to worry about.

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Watters opened his segment on the subject by saying that Trump won the election because of “inflation, the border, culture.”

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“Culture” – as in “Culture Wars” – is a euphemism used by the right to describe restricting LGBTQ+ people’s and women’s rights, as well as issues involving restrictions of free speech and the right to practice no religion or a minority religion.

But Watters apparently felt that Trump mounting a campaign on the back of attacks on transgender people’s rights should somehow be reassuring to cis gay people. Moreover, Watters insisted, Trump has vaguely promised to be “fair” to everyone.

“Donald Trump promised to be a fair president to all Americans and to protect them whether they like it or not, but the liberal fringe is convinced that Trump is out to get them,” Watters said.

“So now hard left gay activists are strapping up and embracing the amendment liberals love to hate, the Second. They’re joining groups like the Socialist Rifle Association and the Pink Pistols, which have seen a surge of membership. Why? Many think that a gun is the only thing standing in the way between them and concentration camps.”

Watters got a few facts wrong from the Philadelphia Inquirer article he was riffing on. The article didn’t say anything about a “surge” in membership in those organizations. It mentioned an increased interest in training sessions at the Liberal Gun Club and the Pink Pistols.

Moreover, the people who talked about getting guns in the article weren’t necessarily “hard left gay activists.” They didn’t all discuss their political beliefs and weren’t “activists.” Also some of the interviewees were transgender.

But Watters said that gay people arming themselves is proof that they’re “nuts.”

“Everyone should exercise their Second Amendment right. We just wish they weren’t so nuts,” he said.

He then had conservative comedian Jimmy Failla on to talk about the matter. Failla made some jokes about how much Trump loves gay people, citing how Trump dances to “YMCA” often and attended Elton John’s wedding.

Both Watters and Failla seemed to be making a large distinction between gay and trans people, apparently not even understanding why many cis gay people would feel threatened by Trump’s attacks on trans people. There are historical connections between gay and trans people – which is why it’s even intelligible to discuss “LGBTQ+ people” as a group today – and many LGBTQ+ people can see how homophobia and transphobia often come from the same sources and have similar effects.

This is a separation of the community that the Philadelphia Inquirer article they were discussing did not make, as it involved interviews with trans people who were arming themselves after being the targets of $215 million of campaign ads from the GOP this past election season.

One trans woman interviewed in the article said that she’s worried about becoming the victim of “hate crimes or terrorist attacks” – showing that she’s not just worried about Trump administration policies.

“In the event of hate crimes or terrorist attacks, knowing that, ‘OK, I’m personally armed and I can protect my property and people that are close to me,'” she said.

“All the people who want to kill the people I care about have guns,” another woman said in the article. “So I do, too.”

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