The big moment from Day 3 of the Republican National Convention was the keynote speech by U.S. Senator JD Vance from Ohio, former President Donald J. Trump’s newly chosen running mate. But in the lead-up, a few featured speakers took the stage to address foreign policy under the evening’s theme of “Make America Strong Once Again.” And again, substantive issues facing the LGBTQ community were ignored at the RNC and LGBTQ identities were only used to generate misunderstanding and fear or outright lies.
Vance was preceded by a long list of speakers that included, among others, Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida, former Trump aide Kellyanne Conway, Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas, Donald Trump Jr., former acting director of national intelligence Richard Grenell, and Gov. Doug Burgum of North Dakota (a GOP primary candidate for president who was also reportedly vetted by the Trump campaign as a potential running mate), all of whom have anti-LGBTQ records. Their records and many more can be found in the GLAAD Accountability Project.
Grenell’s speech included the baseless assertion that, “Donald Trump doesn’t care if you’re gay or straight, black or white, or what gender you are…” In fact, multiple other speakers have lobbed gender-based attacks from the RNC stage, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, and Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida. The “establishment in Washington… promised unity and delivered division,” Greene said in her speech on Monday night. “They promised peace and brought war. They promised normalcy and gave us Transgender Visibility Day on Easter Sunday.” (This statement is false. Transgender Day of Visibility always falls on March 31 whereas the date of Easter changes each year.) On the second night of the RNC, DeSantis attacked “gender ideology,” a conservative expression used to denigrate transgender identities. In fact, transgender people are people, and not an ideology.
Grenell made a related claim in 2020 saying, “President Trump is the most pro-gay president in American history. I can prove it.” Both the 2020 instance and the one on the RNC stage are demonstrably false. The Trump Administration’s anti-LGBTQ record is extensive and GLAAD has tracked more than 218 attacks on the LGBTQ community including instances of harmful and discriminatory policy as well as demeaning and inflammatory rhetoric. The Trump administration (2017–2021) was marked by a series of anti-LGBTQ policies and actions that significantly undermined the health, well-being, and legal protections of LGBTQ individuals in the United States as well as globally. Donald Trump enacted the greatest number of anti-gay and anti-transgender policies of any U.S. president.
Additionally Donald Trump has an extensive record of racist statements, actions, and controversies, as far back as the 1970s, as well as during and after his presidency.
Calista Gingrich, former United States Ambassador to the Holy See and wife of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, said in her speech, that the “right to practice religion is under attack” during the Biden administration and that, “President Trump defended the rights of doctors, nurses, and teachers to act in accordance with their conscience.” In fact, the Trump administration used departments of State, Justice, Health and Human Services, Labor, and Housing and Urban Development to push religious exemptions at the expense of LGBTQ rights. The Trump administration was responsible for numerous anti-LGBTQ actions in health care including rolling back anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ patients and allowing refusal of care based on religious or moral objections.
Gingrich also stated that the FBI under Biden had targeted Catholics simply because of their faith. This is not true. The memo to which she refers was not written by FBI leadership or the Biden administration. It was produced by the FBI’s Richmond, Virginia field office, it did not target all practicing Catholics (but a non-mainstream subset called “radical-traditionalist Catholics”), and an investigation found no evidence to suggest that “anyone ordered or directed” anyone to investigate Catholics based on their religion.
Representative Michael Waltz of Florida said in his speech that Biden is “focused on pronouns… he’s focused on DEI…” and “enemy bullets don’t care about gender.” In fact, the Trump administration banned transgender service members from the military against the expert advice of military leaders, medical authorities, and budget analysts. The ban was based on their gender identity. The RNC platform includes a promise to “strengthen and modernize our military, making it, without question, the strongest and most powerful in the world,” yet Trump has already promised to reinstate a harmful transgender military ban that was cruel and unwarranted, costly, unwanted by military leaders, and harmed military readiness.
JD Vance’s speech walked through his biography and economic vision. It did not include mention of his election denialism, a belief he shares with Trump. In fact, according to a thorough 2021 statistical analysis conducted by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, a peer-reviewed national journal, the “evidence” provided by Trump supporters and administration to support the so-called stolen election are misconstrued and not even “remotely convincing.”
JD Vance’s anti-LGBTQ record can be found here.
The 2024 U.S. election is the most consequential in modern history and will have repercussions for individual rights and liberties, as well as for the future of democracy in the United States and globally. The effects will be far-reaching and long lasting, and will be felt acutely by LGBTQ people, queer people of color, women and people of reproductive capacity, transgender adults and youth. Many communities’s rights, safety, and wellbeing will be shaped by the election outcomes. For GLAAD’s Guide to Covering the 2024 Issues, click here.
GLAAD has documented the anti-LGBTQ history of Donald Trump, including his policies and statements on a number of issues, including abortion, education, and climate change. For fact sheets on all his actions on these and other topics, click here.