By Raquel Willis
At a news conference on August 8, 2024, former President Trump criticized the record of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, chosen last week as Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, including Walz’s support for LGBTQ people (record here). Trump claimed Walz was “heavy into the transgender world,” without detail on what he meant, or recognition that transgender people are part of everyone’s world.
The rhetoric matched Trump’s comments to Fox News the day before: “He’s very heavy into transgender. Anything transgender he thinks is great, and he’s not where the country is on anything.”
GLAAD’s Voter Poll shows a majority of voters of all parties oppose candidates who campaign against transgender people.
Trump’s own record shows he has heavy interest in targeting and restricting transgender people and plans to continue this record if elected.
Trump’s 2024 platform on transgender Americans includes:
- Outlawing gender-affirming care for minors at the federal level, according to his “Agenda 47”
- Using the government to investigate and potentially halt trans health care. “Upon my inauguration, I will direct the FDA to convene an independent outside panel to investigate whether transgender hormone treatments and ideology increase the risk of extreme depression, aggression and even violence,” said Trump.
- Ceasing “all programs that promote the concept of sex and gender transition at any age.”
- Cutting federal funding for inclusive schools, including “any school pushing critical race theory, transgender insanity, and other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content onto the lives of our children.”
- Banning transgender athletes from competing on teams that match their gender identity
- Asking “Congress to pass a bill establishing that the only genders recognized by the United States government are male and female — and they are assigned at birth.”
- Pledging in his “Agenda 47” titled “President Trump’s Plan to Protect Children From Left-Wing Gender Insanity.” The Advocate reports, “Trump promised to, and He also promised to.… Trump stated that he ‘will ask Congress to pass a bill establishing that the only genders recognized by the United States government are male and female — and they are assigned at birth.’
- Rolling back Title IX protections for transgender students enacted in April 2024 by the U.S. Department of Education “on day one,” if he’s reelected. Trump said: “We’re going to end it on day one. Don’t forget, that was done as an order from the president. That came down as an executive order. And we’re going to change it—on day one it’s going to be changed…. It’ll be terminated.”
- Declaring November 5 as “Christian Visibility Day” after a baseless complaint about Transgender Day of Visibility coinciding with Easter in 2024. Previously Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt issued a statement calling it “appalling and insulting” that Biden “formally proclaimed Easter Sunday as ‘Trans Day of Visibility.’ ”
Trump’s rhetoric on transgender Americans includes:
- Claiming that being transgender was ‘invented’ by the ‘radical left,’ though he did not use the term ‘transgender’ once throughout Agenda 47.”
- Repeating baseless disinformation about trans women and girls participating in sports including in response to the Paris Olympics and at the Republican National Convention. GLAAD’s Voter Poll shows a majority of voters in all parties oppose “a political candidate [who] speaks frequently about restricting access to health care and participation in sports for transgender youth.”
- Criticizing Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine for vetoing a state bill banning essential health care for transgender youth and banning trans youth from school sports, spread disinformation about the care and school sports. DeWine had said his veto was based on conversations he had with parents, patients and providers who told him how the care saves lives. Trump said in a Truth Social post: “DeWine has fallen to the Radical Left… What was he thinking. The bill would have stopped child mutilation, and prevented men from playing in women’s sports. Legislature will hopefully overturn. Do it FAST!!!” Ohio hospitals and providers, along with hundreds of others, had testified that they do not perform surgeries on youth, and Ohio’s school sports association has long had policies to ensure inclusive participation of transgender students.
- Mocked a Canadian weightlifter in an extended campaign event skit to mock and misgender transgender women in sports, claiming he will “end this on day one” if he’s re-elected.
- Said of transgender athletes at a rally, “Who would even think that you can allow this? Who would say that this is okay? These people are sick. They are deranged…. It’s astonishing how passionately people react to that. When you talk about tax cuts, they remain calm. But when you mention transgender issues, everyone goes wild. Who would have imagined five years ago that they wouldn’t even know what ‘it’ meant?”
- Accused Democrats of “pushing the transgender cult” on children.
- Vowed to crack down on “transgender insanity” and pledged to “revoke every Biden policy promoting the disfigurement of our youth” at the first rally of his 2024 presidential campaign. He said that he would “keep men out of women’s sports” if re-elected president after he last year misgendered transgender athlete Lia Thomas. He added: “I will immediately sign an executive order to cut federal funding for any school pushing critical race theory, transgender insanity, and other racial, sexual or political content on our children.”
- Made multiple false claims about gender-affirming care, tweeting a so-called “Plan to Protect Children from Left-Wing Gender Insanity.“ Every major medical association and world health authority supports gender affirming care; statements here including from the American Academy of Pediatrics: “There is strong consensus among the most prominent medical organizations worldwide that evidence-based, gender-affirming care for transgender children and adolescents is medically necessary and appropriate. It can even be lifesaving. The decision of whether and when to start gender-affirming treatment, which does not necessarily lead to hormone therapy or surgery, is personal and involves careful consideration by each patient and their family.”
- In a speech announcing third run for president, baselessly targeted schools for “radical civics and gender insanity” (without defining what those are) and stated inaccurate and inflammatory promises such as “We will not let men, as an example, participate in women’s sports.”
- Recommitted to his 2017 tweeted ban against transgender Americans serving in the military: “As commander-in-chief, I will get Biden’s radical left ideology out of our military.” President Biden reversed the tweeted order in 2021 in one of his first acts as President. 70% of Americans support allowing transgender Americans to serve in the U.S. armed forces. 66% of active-duty soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines support serving alongside transgender personnel.
- Invited activist Riley Gaines on stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) as he baselessly claimed that “left-wing lunatics” encourage unfair competition in sports. Gaines has profited by spreading disinformation about transgender people and athletes after tying for 5th place with a transgender swimmer at the NCAA championships. Gaines went on to endorse Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for president over Trump.
- Told that he did not believe transgender women and girls should compete on sports teams consistent with their gender identity, referring to trans female athletes as “biological males,” a term often used by anti-trans activists to suggest transgender people are not who they say they are.
- Trump’s Department of Education pressures New Hampshire’s Franklin Pierce University to drop its trans-inclusive policy in athletics. The university agreed to rescind its policy permitting transgender athletes to compete consistent with their gender identity to avoid an investigation by the DOE’s Office of Civil Rights. A civil rights complaint triggering the threat of an investigation was filed by “Concerned Women for America,” a noted anti-LGBTQ hate group.
- Tiffany Trump appears at a campaign event, falsely claiming her father supports the LGBTQ community, ignoring his and his administration’s record of hundreds of attacks against the community. She also omits the “T” when saying “LGBTQ.” The “T” stands for Transgender. LGBTQ advocates see Tiffany Trump’s omission as another example of President Trump and his supporters’ failure to recognize and support trans people and their existence.
- Nominates Amy Coney Barrett to the United States Supreme Court. In her speech, Barrett says she adheres to the same judicial philosophy as the late justice Antonin Scalia. Scalia, who dissented in cases advancing LGBTQ rights, called the Obergefell decision “a threat to American democracy,” and Barrett has similarly stated views against marriage equality, defended dissenters of Obergefell, and delivered speeches paid for by anti-LGBTQ groups. She was vetted for the Trump administration by The Federalist Society, which has argued against every major LGBTQ policy proposal including extending Title VII of the Civil Rights Act to include LGBTQ workers, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, hate crimes legislation, “don’t ask, don’t tell,” and transgender accommodations.
- Education Secretary Betsy DeVos vows to withhold federal funds from Connecticut school districts that participate in athletic conferences allowing transgender athletes to compete consistent with their gender identity. The move to withhold about $18 million intended to help schools desegregate could have national implications for both transgender athletes and students of color.
- The lead U.S. foreign aid agency proposes a new policy on gender and women’s empowerment that eliminates any mention of transgender people or contraceptives, running counter to its own long-standing practices in deciding what programs to support. The draft policy released by the U.S. Agency for International Development doesn’t use the acronym LGBT or the words “lesbian,” “gay,” “bisexual,” “transgender” or “identity” at all. Gender experts and advocates said the new policy falls far short of providing the expertise the agency needs to address gender issues in development.
- Jenna Ellis, Trump campaign senior legal adviser and the president’s personal lawyer, misgenders Pennsylvania’s Health Secretary. Ellis, who has no apparent medical degree, uses Twitter to mock other efforts to control the pandemic that has killed 163,000 people on President Trump’s watch. Ellis also condemns same-sex marriage and transgender identity, and has tweeted to promote conversion therapy.
- Three years after President Trump tweeted out a ban on transgender people in the military “in any capacity,” the White House says he’s sticking with the policy. Each of the military service chiefs testified before Congress in 2018 they had seen no evidence of transgender service disrupting unit cohesion during the period of open service and a Dept. of Defense poll found about two-thirds of active-duty soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines support serving alongside transgender personnel.
- New details emerge from a proposed Housing and Urban Development rule limiting access for transgender people in single-sex homeless shelters. According to text from a leaked document obtained by Vox, the rule would allow federally-funded shelters to judge a person’s physical characteristics, such as height and facial hair, in determining access to the shelter. Factors to be considered include “the presence (but not the absence) of facial hair, the presence of an Adam’s apple, and other physical characteristics which, when considered together, are indicative of a person’s biological sex.”
- Trump Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany falsely claims President Trump has “a great record” with the LGBTQ community. Trump has an abysmal record of attacks on LGBTQ people, including implementing a ban on transgender people in the military, rolling back access to healthcare and homeless shelters, and defending discrimination in multiple cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.
- Housing and Urban Development announces new rule allowing single-sex homeless shelters to turn away transgender people, continuing a trend of dismantling protections for trans people across the federal government. HUD has acknowledged there is no evidence that transgender residents pose a risk to cisgender residents.
- Trump Justice Department files “statement of interest“ supporting Idaho’s new law barring transgender female athletes from competing consistent with their gender identity, a law that allows genital and genetic screenings. More than 500 college student-athletes and professional stars Megan Rapinoe, Billie Jean King, Jason Collins and Reggie Bullock, join a petition to the NCAA asking to move championships out of Idaho in response to the discriminatory law.
- Dept. of Housing and Urban Development considers rolling back a rule requiring homeless shelters to safely accommodate transgender people.
- Protections rolled back for transgender Americans seeking healthcare under a new rule announced by HHS, four years to the day of the Pulse nightclub attack.
- The Trump administration threatens to withhold funding from states that allow athletes to compete under the gender with which they identify.
- U.S. Navy grants a waiver to transgender naval officer, allowing her to remain in uniform. It’s the first waiver granted since the administration began enforcing its surprise ban against transgender service members. The government is expected to file its response to the suit filed by the naval officer in federal court.
- The Trump Department of Justice filed a “statement of interest” in U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut, which stated that it has a “significant interest” in ensuring that Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972 is interpreted as excluding transgender female athletes and applying only to cisgender females.
- While touring San Francisco’s HUD office, Secretary Ben Carson reportedly describes conversations about homeless women being traumatized if “big, hairy men” walk into shelters identifying as women. The Washington Post reports Carson said single-sex shelters should have the discretion to turn away transgender people.
- Trump’s Justice Department files a court brief to the U.S. Supreme Court, asking the nation’s highest court to block transgender Americans from having nationwide workplace protections.
- During his visit to the United Kingdom, President Trump continued to use discredited information about transgender Americans—including categorizing trans people as drug users—as a means to justify his ban on allowing transgender Americans from openly serving in the country’s armed forces.
- The Trump Administration announced a new policy stating transgender Americans would not be guaranteed health care protections under the Affordable Care Act, potentially harming 1.5 million trans Americans.
- The Trump Administration announced plans to rescind Obama-era policy which asked homeless shelters receiving federal dollars to grant transgender Americans the ability to use facilities according to their gender identity.
- President Trump and his administration implement its ban barring transgender Americans from openly serving in the country’s armed services.
- During a House Education Committee hearing, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos acknowledged that the administration’s choice to rescind the Obama-era bathroom guidance—which added protections for transgender students—exposed trans students to additional harassment and discrimination in schools across the nation.
- In a late night decision, the Trump Administration announces plans to implement its ban on transgender service members from openly serving in the country’s armed forces according to their gender identity, impacting more than 13,000 service members who are currently enlisted.
- During a House Armed Services Subcommittee hearing on the administration’s ban on transgender services members from serving openly in the armed forces, Trump Administration officials used derogatory phrases such as “a transgender,” but they also called gender-confirmation surgery a “disqualifying surgery,” comparing it to having cancer, heart disease, or diabetes.
- Trump meets with Ginni Thomas, wife of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, and anti-LGBTQ group Groundswell at the White House. According to news reports, Ms. Thomas led a meeting where participants denounced transgender Americans and claimed the historic, nationwide marriage equality ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court was “harming the fabric of the United States.” The Supreme Court is on the verge of deciding whether to take up a case regarding Trump’s ban on allowing transgender service members from serving in the nation’s armed forces.
- The Trump Administration asks the United States Supreme Court to circumvent federal appeals courts and issue a ruling on transgender Americans’ right to serve in the military.
- The Department of Justice writes in a brief to the Supreme Court that it is legal to discriminate against transgender employees based on their gender identity, saying that banning sex discrimination under Title VII in the workplace does not extend to transgender workers.
- The Department of Health and Human Services proposes to change the legal definition of sex under Title IX, requiring individuals to identify according to their gender assigned at birth. This change in legal definition would remove nondiscrimination protections for transgender, nonbinary, and intersex individuals.
- The Trump Administration rolls back protections for incarcerated transgender people that were intended to mitigate their exposure to sexual assault and abuse, allowing the Bureau of Prisons to “use biological sex as the initial determination for designation” when placing trans people for housing, screening, and programs and services.
- Reporting in Slate reveals that the Trump Administration worked closely with Tony Perkins, head of the anti-LGBTQ hate group Family Research Council to draft their latest policy to implement Trump’s ban on transgender soldiers from openly serving in any capacity within the United States armed forces.
- President Trump announces a reworked attempt to ban all transgender people from serving in the military in response to the implementation of his original policy being frozen by four different federal courts who declared it likely to be unconstitutional.
- The Department of Housing and Urban Development defends the Trump Administration’s decision to remove guidelines from its website intended to prevent anti-LGBTQ discrimination in homeless shelters by arguing that transgender women accessing shelters make people ”not comfortable.”
- The Department of Education once again states that it is the Trump Administration’s position to refuse to protect transgender students denied access to bathrooms and lockers based on their gender identity, even when faced with court rulings reaffirming that transgender students are protected under Title IX.
- The Department of Education officially confirms they will not investigate or take action on any complaints filed by transgender students who are banned from restrooms that match their gender identity.
- Staff at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were instructed not to use the words “transgender,” “vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “diversity,” “fetus,” “evidence-based,” and “science-based” in official budget documents.
- In a Department of Justice memo, the Trump Administration reverses a policy that provided non-discrimination protections for transgender people in the workplace under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
- Trump nominates Gregory Katsas, who worked behind the scenes to promote the implementation of the trans military ban and revoke federal guidelines that protect transgender students from discrimination, to the U.S. Federal Court of Appeals for the Circuit of D.C.
- Trump officially directed the Pentagon to move forward with his ban on transgender service members openly serving in the U.S. Military. The discriminatory policy is to take effect on March 23, 2018.
- An official White House webpage directs readers to an article published by the anti-LGBTQ Heritage Foundation that calls being transgender a “psychological disorder.”
- Trump announces he will ban transgender servicemembers from serving in “any capacity” in the U.S. military, threatening to fire 15,000 currently serving troops.
- Reporting reveals Vice President Mike Pence advocated for the removal of healthcare benefits for transgender service members within the U.S. military behind closed doors.
- Reports revealed President Trump hired anti-transgender activist Bethany Kozma to the Office of Gender Equality and Women’s Rights at the US Agency for International Development.
- An internal memo obtained from the Department of Education Office for Civil Rights reveals guidelines to dismiss complaints about bathroom access filed by transgender students.
- Trump rescinds Title IX protections for transgender students in our nation’s schools.
- As early as May 2016, candidate Trump vows to rescind federal directives that protect transgender people in schools and healthcare.