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Trump's second term agenda on LGBTQ issues alarms civil rights groups
Trump’s second term agenda on LGBTQ issues alarms civil rights groups
The former president, who has shifted his positions over the years, is now planning to lead the GOP charge on gender identity if he returns to the White House.
Former president Donald Trump speaks to supporters during a campaign rally in Johnstown, Pa. (Jeff Swensen/Jeff Swensen for The Washington Post)
By Hannah Knowles
September 22, 2024 at 5:00 a.m. EDT
Penny Nance slid a form across the table to Donald Trump at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J. Her Christian nonprofit, Concerned Women for America, wanted Trump to pledge in writing that a person’s “gender identity” doesn’t “overrule their sex,” and that if he becomes president again, “all federal agencies will be directed to uphold this fact in every policy and program at home and abroad.”
Such a promise would have wide-ranging implications, the form emphasized, affecting schools, prisons, shelters, health care providers, the military and more. But it was an easy sell, Nance recalled of her June 2023 conversation, and Trump soon signed the pledge. On the trail a few days later Trump marveled aloud at the crowd’s standing ovation for his promise to crack down on “transgender insanity.” … “It’s amazing how strongly people feel about that. You see, I’m talking about cutting taxes, people go like that,” he said, mimicking a polite, reserved clap. “I talk about transgender, everyone goes crazy,” he added. “Who would have thought?”
The former president, who has shifted his position over the years on LGBTQ issues, is planning to lead the GOP charge on gender identity if he returns to the White House, according to his campaign and interviews with allies, testing the legal limits of federal action as the Supreme Court also takes up the issue. He says he wants to kick providers out of Medicare and Medicaid for offering gender transition care to minors such as hormone therapy and surgery; pull federal funding from schools if officials suggest a child “could be trapped in the wrong body”; and purge anything in the federal government deemed to promote transgender identity. The moves would go against the advice of leading medical groups.
LGBTQ+ activists protest Senate Bill 14 that would ban gender-affirming medical care for transgender children at the Texas Capitol *in Austin on May 12, 2023. The Texas Supreme Court has upheld the state’s ban on gender-affirming medical care for minors, June 28, 2024, rejecting pleas from parents that it violates their right to seek care for their transgender children. (Mikala Compton/AP)
He has said far less about gay rights, an issue where he is sometimes out of step with his most conservative Christian supporters. His wife, Melania Trump, has hosted fundraisers for an LGBTQ Republican group in recent months. And over the summer, Trump backed an overhaul of the Republican Party platform that removed long-standing opposition to the Supreme Court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage.
{snip}
By Hannah Knowles
Hannah Knowles is a national politics reporter covering campaigns at The Washington Post. She previously reported for The Post's general assignment desk.follow on X @KnowlesHannah
The former president, who has shifted his positions over the years, is now planning to lead the GOP charge on gender identity if he returns to the White House.
Former president Donald Trump speaks to supporters during a campaign rally in Johnstown, Pa. (Jeff Swensen/Jeff Swensen for The Washington Post)
By Hannah Knowles
September 22, 2024 at 5:00 a.m. EDT
Penny Nance slid a form across the table to Donald Trump at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J. Her Christian nonprofit, Concerned Women for America, wanted Trump to pledge in writing that a person’s “gender identity” doesn’t “overrule their sex,” and that if he becomes president again, “all federal agencies will be directed to uphold this fact in every policy and program at home and abroad.”
Such a promise would have wide-ranging implications, the form emphasized, affecting schools, prisons, shelters, health care providers, the military and more. But it was an easy sell, Nance recalled of her June 2023 conversation, and Trump soon signed the pledge. On the trail a few days later Trump marveled aloud at the crowd’s standing ovation for his promise to crack down on “transgender insanity.” … “It’s amazing how strongly people feel about that. You see, I’m talking about cutting taxes, people go like that,” he said, mimicking a polite, reserved clap. “I talk about transgender, everyone goes crazy,” he added. “Who would have thought?”
The former president, who has shifted his position over the years on LGBTQ issues, is planning to lead the GOP charge on gender identity if he returns to the White House, according to his campaign and interviews with allies, testing the legal limits of federal action as the Supreme Court also takes up the issue. He says he wants to kick providers out of Medicare and Medicaid for offering gender transition care to minors such as hormone therapy and surgery; pull federal funding from schools if officials suggest a child “could be trapped in the wrong body”; and purge anything in the federal government deemed to promote transgender identity. The moves would go against the advice of leading medical groups.
LGBTQ+ activists protest Senate Bill 14 that would ban gender-affirming medical care for transgender children at the Texas Capitol *in Austin on May 12, 2023. The Texas Supreme Court has upheld the state’s ban on gender-affirming medical care for minors, June 28, 2024, rejecting pleas from parents that it violates their right to seek care for their transgender children. (Mikala Compton/AP)
He has said far less about gay rights, an issue where he is sometimes out of step with his most conservative Christian supporters. His wife, Melania Trump, has hosted fundraisers for an LGBTQ Republican group in recent months. And over the summer, Trump backed an overhaul of the Republican Party platform that removed long-standing opposition to the Supreme Court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage.
{snip}
By Hannah Knowles
Hannah Knowles is a national politics reporter covering campaigns at The Washington Post. She previously reported for The Post's general assignment desk.follow on X @KnowlesHannah