On Monday, during the White House Press Briefing, Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany made several false claims, including that the Trump administration has “a great record” with the LGBTQ community. President Trump’s record on LGBTQ issues is abysmal and tracked by GLAAD’s Trump Accountability Project.
During the briefing, Washington Blade reporter Chris Johnson asked McEnany if President Trump would lift the ban he enacted to bar transgender people from serving in the armed forces. McEnany responded: “I haven’t talked to him about that specific policy, but this president is proud that in 2019 we launched a global initiative to end the criminalization of homosexuality throughout the world.” She continued: “He has a great record when it comes to the LGBT community. The Trump administration eased a ban on blood donations from gay and bisexual men and he launched a plan to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030, so we’re very proud of our achievements.”
GLAAD has counted at least 153 attacks on LGBTQ people by the Trump administration since he took office, including ones McEnamy tried to claim as positives during the briefing:
- It’s been almost a month since the Supreme Court ruled it illegal to fire people because they are LGBTQ, cases in which the Trump administration fought to defend the employers who discriminated. Trump has done nothing to reverse his discriminatory ban on transgender people serving in the military, and his press secretary hasn’t even talked to him about it.
- The effort to decriminalize being gay worldwide went nowhere. Instead, Trump has openly supported Polish President Duda, who campaigned and governed to make Poland the worst nation in the EU on LGBTQ rights. Duda just won a second term.
- The Trump administration has cut funding for HIV/AIDS. Last month, Trump falsely claimed there is an AIDS vaccine. There is no AIDS vaccine.
- Despite an alarming shortage of blood donations and urgent calls for COVID-19 survivors to donate potentially life-saving plasma, the FDA still recommends a deferral period for gay and bi men to donate. The policy remains rooted in fear and bias, not science.
- The Trump administration has systematically deployed multiple agencies to erase LGBTQ rights in healthcare, housing, education; it has advanced and expanded religious exemptions that specifically target LGBTQ people, and continues to lobby against LGBTQ foster families, all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. One policy rollback, eliminating protections for transgender people seeking medical care, was announced four years to the day of the Pulse massacre that killed 49 people, most of whom were LGBTQ. Another would allow federally-funded homeless shelters to reject transgender people, despite zero evidence that transgender residents are a risk in a single-sex shelter.