The White House has not invited Chris Johnson, the chief political and White House reporter for the nation’s oldest LGBT paper the Washington Blade, to the annual holiday party. The reporter thinks that the move is kind of consistent with the policy of the administration to exclude LGBTQ people.
Johnson told The Independent that he has been on every annual holiday for the last seven years and attends White House briefings. But, after he did not get an invitation for this year’s party, he decided to ask the White House what was the reason for that.
“I assumed it was an oversight, because I’m at the White House every day and contribute to the pool reports,” the reporter said.
He emailed the White House over the Thanksgiving holiday and has not received an explanation.
“I could interpret this as playing favorites. The lack of invite is very consistent with me being ignored by White House press secretary Sarah Sanders during the press briefings,” Johnson said.
Newsweek reports that Trump administration has a bad track record regarding LGBT issues because Trump wants to stop transgender people from serving in the military and departments of Justice and Education withdrew a guidance that explained how schools protect transgender students. Furthermore, Justice Department released a “license to discriminate.” Some say that the documents allows discrimination against LGBT people as long as they cite religious freedom.
But, Johnson is not the only correspondent who has reported from the White House for years and is not invited to the party. April Ryan is one of the few black reporters in the White House and is also not invited to the Christmas party. She is a correspondent and DC bureau chief for American Urban Radio Networks. Ryan also thinks that the move is not a mistake.
“I don’t think I was overlooked. I think they don’t like me. For whatever reason, they have disdain for me,” Ms Ryan told the Washington Post.
Ryan did not say that she was passed over because of her identity, but in the past she has said that reporters of color are treated like the opposition in the White House. CNN decided to boycott the party which will be held on a weekday and where the first couple will not pose for pictures with reporters, something that former administrations have done.
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