After announcing that he will only host Republicans during the annual presidential meeting with governors, Donald Trump has excluded the only out gay man and only Black governors from the following dinner event.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore have not been invited to the White House dinner with the National Governors Association, which Moore is a vice chair of. The decision comes seemingly for no reason — other than the obvious.
Related: Colorado’s Jared Polis Is First Out Gay Man Reelected Governor
“Governor Polis and other Governors are focused on delivering results for our states, not playing games,” a spokesperson for Polis told The Advocate. “Governor Polis does welcome recommendations for popular local restaurants now that he and other Democratic Governors may have a free evening to explore the best DC has to offer.”
The White House hosts a bipartisan meeting with the NGA every winter, with this year’s scheduled for February 19 to 21. Trump announced last week that the meeting would exclude Democrats, prompting the NGA to withdraw its association from the event.
All governors are still invited to dinner at the White House after the meeting — except for Moore, who is Black, and Polis, who is an out gay man. Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey and Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, who are both out lesbians, still have invitations as of this moment.
No specific reason has been given for Moore’s and Polis’s exclusions, though both have long been at odds with the Trump administration. Polis has often spoken out against the president, famously using South Park art to mock his presidential portrait in the Colorado capitol.
Related: Out gay Colorado Gov. Jared Polis mocks Donald Trump’s ‘unflattering painting’
Trump threatened in August to deploy the National Guard in Baltimore, which he has in other Democratic cities in a supposed crackdown on crime. When Moore invited him to visit the city and see its safety firsthand, Trump threatened to withdraw federal funding for the Key Bridge.
“It’s not lost on me that I’m the only Black governor in this country,” Moore said in a recent appearance on CNN’s State of the Union. “And I find that to be particularly painful, considering the fact that the president is trying to exclude me from an organization that not only my peers have asked me to help to lead, but then also a place where I know I belong in.”
“I have long learned — and I’ve talked to the people and the children of my state — that I am never in a room because of someone’s benevolence or kindness,” Moore continued. “I’m not in a room because of a social experiment. I’m in the room because I belong there and the room was incomplete until I got there.”
This article has been updated to include comment from Polis.
Leave a Reply