Ivanka Trump Accidentally Revealed Why Gay Parents Won't Like Donald Trump's Child Care Plan
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Working mother Ivanka Trump stood next to her father, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, when he revealed his child care plan this week.
The child care plan aims to help parents with child care expenses through tax deductions and rebates. The proposal also offers maternity leave paid for by the federal unemployment program.
On Wednesday, Cosmopolitan released an interview with Ivanka Trump about the child care plan she strongly supports and helped create.
However, the interview may not have gone the way she wanted.
Trump seemed to unintentionally and begrudgingly reveal that her father's child care plan would not give fathers paternity leave, and therefore gay couples would not get leave when adopting a child — an issue that has been percolating since the plan was released.
"Where does that leave gay fathers? Single fathers? Families with stay-at-home dads?" Rolling Stone asked in a recent piece about the plan.
When Cosmopolitan's Prachi Gupta first asked Ivanka Trump if the plan covered paternity leave, Trump avoided the question altogether.
"This is a giant leap from where we are today, which is sadly, nothing. Both sides of the aisle have been unable to agree on this issue, so I think this takes huge advancement and obviously, for same-sex couples as well, there's tremendous benefit here to enabling the mother to recover after childbirth. It's critical for the health of the mother. It's critical for bonding with the child, and that was a top focus of this plan."
Trying again, Gupta brought up same-sex couples and Trump referred to lesbian couples but not male gay couples. Trump said:
"So it's meant to benefit, whether it's in same-sex marriages as well, to benefit the mother who has given birth to the child if they have legal married status under the tax code."
Apparently determined to get a clear answer, Gupta asked directly about male gay couples: "Well, what about gay couples, where both partners are men?"
Trump referred to the campaign website.
"The policy is fleshed out online, so you can go see all the elements of it. But the original intention of the plan is to help mothers in recovery in the immediate aftermath of childbirth."
Gupta made a fourth and final try to get a direct answer on the topic: "So I just want to be clear that, for same-sex adoption, where the two parents are both men, they would not be receiving special leave for that because they don't need to recover or anything?"
"Well, those are your words, not mine. [Laughs.] Those are your words. The plan, right now, is focusing on mothers, whether they be in same-sex marriages or not."
The interview moves on from there to questions about her father's previous inflammatory comments concerning pregnant women. Eventually, Trump accuses Gupta of asking questions with a "negative" slant.
"So I think that you have a lot of negativity in these questions, and I think my father has put forth a very comprehensive and really revolutionary plan to deal with a lot of issues," Trump said.
Only 12 percent of Americans in non-government jobs get paid parental leave, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
U.S. Department of Labor - dol.gov
Paid maternity leave can increase the labor force by making it easier for women to stay in the workforce after giving birth, and paternity leave encourages men to take active role as caregivers, according to the department.
