FACT SHEET FOR REPORTERS: ACCURATE AND INCLUSIVE COVERAGE OF LGBTQ PEOPLE AND ISSUES DURING THE REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION AND NOMINATION OF DONALD TRUMP

GLAAD: Media covering the Republican National Convention must include accurate information and context to explain the positions of the candidates, elected officials, and commentators on the critical issues impacting LGBTQ people.

(Friday, July 12, 2024)  GLAAD, the world’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) media advocacy organization, and Fair Wisconsin, the state’s LGBTQ+ civil rights and political advocacy organization, are releasing a fact sheet for reporters covering the Republican National Convention and nomination of Donald Trump.

Facts to include in your coverage:

• Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, led more than 210 attacks in policy and rhetoric against LGBTQ people during his one-term in office and current campaign. GLAAD’s ongoing documentation of Trump’s anti-LGBTQ record is available on the Trump Accountability Tracker, here.
• Trump appointed anti-LGBTQ activists to nearly every government agency to roll back protections and target LGBTQ people seeking an education, health care, housing, jobs, and service in the military. As President, Trump tweeted a ban on transgender military service, and he has promised to reinstate the ban.
• Throughout his presidency, the Trump administration argued to legalize discrimination at work, at school, in health care and housing access, trying to buy a cake, and trying to adopt
• Trump nominated three anti-LGBTQ justices to the U.S. Supreme Court who went on to vote to overturn Roe v. Wade in a decision that was backed by Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, who said the landmark LGBTQ equality decisions Obergefell (marriage equality), Lawrence (private same-sex relationships), and Griswold (private decisions about contraception) should also be “reconsidered.” Trump nominee and credibly accused rapist Brett Kavanaugh is supported by anti-LGBTQ group Family Research Council. Trump nominee and frequent speaker for anti-LGBTQ hate group Alliance Defending Freedom Amy Coney Barrett served at a school that discriminates against LGBTQ students and families. Neil Gorsuch, who had written the Bostock decision expanding civil rights protections to LGBTQ workers (over Trump administration objections), wrote the decision in 303 Creative, a 26-page opinion about a legal dispute that never existed, and websites that do not exist, at the behest of anti-LGBTQ hate group Alliance Defending Freedom on fully fabricated standing.
• The overturning of Roe has had a catastrophic impact on LGBTQ people. LGBTQ people can and do get pregnant and need reproductive health care. Many of the same states with abortion bans also have enacted bans on transgender health care.
• In 2016 Trump said he would “strongly consider” Supreme Court justices who would overturn marriage equality.
• In his current campaign, Trump has promised to defund schools that support transgender students’ safety.
• Trump has pledged a national ban on mainstream health care that allows transgender people to live and thrive.
• Trump’s administration was fully stocked with activists from the longtime anti-LGBTQ Heritage Foundation, whose Project 2025 manifesto for the next conservative president calls for ending protections for LGBTQ people as well as ending access to abortion and contraception, and erasing LGBTQ-inclusive language throughout federal agencies.
• Despite this comprehensive record of attacks against LGBTQ people, Trump and his supporters falsely claim that he supports the LGBTQ community. The Washington Post gave Trump advisor Richard Grenell four Pinnochios for “the absurd claim that Trump is the ‘most pro-gay president in American history.’” The claims are deemed “whoppers,” and every claim Grenell makes is discredited.
• The LGBTQ records of Trump’s potential Vice President are also documented by GLAAD, here. Any story about Trump’s Vice President should note their anti-LGBTQ history.
• The Trump-centric RNC 2024 platform lists 20 promises including, “Defend our Constitution, our Bill of Rights, and our fundamental freedoms, including freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and the right to keep and bear arms.” In fact the previous Trump administration was marked by attacks on the freedoms promised in the Bill of Rights including: restricting protests near the White House; attacks on the free press; false protection of free speech on college campuses that privileged conservatism; privileging Christianity over other faiths; appointing judges who were favorable to Christian interests; and barring entry to the U.S. by people from majority Muslim nations. “Religious freedom” in the Trump administration was used to deny equality to LGBTQ people in health care, adoption and foster care, employment, and government contracting, among other areas.
• The RNC platform also 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, unwanted by military leaders, costly, and harmed military readiness.
• The RNC platform also includes a promise to, “Cut federal funding for any school pushing critical race theory, radical gender ideology, and other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content on our children.” The platform promises to “restore Parental Rights,” but in practice the parents whose rights are being upheld are not LGBTQ parents or parents who are people of color, or parents of LGBTQ or POC students.
• The RNC platform also includes a promise to “keep men out of women’s sports.” In fact, nearly 50 states this year were considering bills that ban transgender participation in sports, despite no evidence in the states of trans inclusion being an issue. Research shows states with trans-inclusive policies have more girls participating in sports overall than states with bans on trans girls’ participation.

Best Practices for Campaign Reporters:

• Stories about or that mention LGBTQ people should include LGBTQ voices.
  
• In stories specifically about transgender people, seek and include a transgender person.
  
• Prioritize facts, expertise and LGBTQ lived experience over candidate and campaign opinion in your reporting. If a candidate remarks about LGBTQ people, always include facts and context. For example, any discussion of transgender health care must note this care is supported by every major medical association (30+ statements here).
• Review and report a candidate’s LGBTQ record and support from anti-LGBTQ groups. Ongoing documentation is available on candidates, other public figures, and groups via the GLAAD Accountability Project.
• Avoid shorthand descriptions of political conversations about LGBTQ people as a “culture war.” This dehumanizes marginalized people as a “side” and allows politicians to escape accountability for creating and fueling the “war.” Descriptors like this add to voter apathy. Focus reporting on the policies, the people directly harmed, and the candidates proposing them and their LGBTQ history.

• Be factual and clear in your language: “(candidate name) has proposed policies restricting health care for transgender people, despite the fact this care is supported by every major medical association.”
• Do not repeat, or clearly state as false, “groomer” rhetoric. Experts in child abuse prevention have raised alarms that this rhetoric undermines understanding of actual child abuse and endangers innocent people and children.
• Include greater context: 500+ anti-LGBTQ bills were proposed in state legislatures through 2023. This is a broad scale, coordinated attack against LGBTQ Americans’ growing visibility and acceptance, via targeting health care, book bans, curriculum and conversation bans, sports bans, and bathroom bans. Inform your readers and viewers about this larger pattern of LGBTQ animus as you report on issues and candidates supporting them. Note also how health care and drag ban bills have been blocked in multiple states and district courts as unconstitutional and discriminatory, and how voters in Wisconsin and across the country have rejected so-called “parents’ rights” groups that push book bans and discriminatory policies against LGBTQ students, families, and teachers.
  • In Wisconsin’s most recent legislative session, at least 26 anti-LGBTQ bills were introduced, including an attempt to ban health care for transgender youth and restrictions on transgender participation in sports in high school and college; and more than 100 Wisconsin school districts – one in four – faced pressure to ban books. Despite extremist national groups pushing the bills forward and perpetuating disinformation about LGBTQ people and issues, the bills were defeated and none of them became law.
  • Voters across the country, including in Wisconsin, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Iowa, and other battleground states, soundly rejected anti-LGBTQ extremist candidates and groups like Moms for Liberty in high-profile school board races in the most recent elections, who sought to ban books and conversations about LGBTQ people and issues. In Wisconsin last spring, Moms for Liberty were defeated in 20 of the 28 school board elections they endorsed.
    • Overall, 76% of Americans and 79% of Wisconsinites support LGBTQ nondiscrimination protections in the most recent polls by Public Religion Research Institute.
  • Report connections between anti-LGBTQ incidents, rhetoric and extremism: In addition to the dramatic rise of anti-LGBTQ legislation, at least 700 attacks against LGBTQ people were documented through 2023, including murders, assault, harassment, and vandalism, with increasing connections of anti-LGBTQ violence by people from extremist groups like Oath Keepers, Patriot Front, and Proud Boys. Anti-LGBTQ posts on extremist media, further amplified on extremist cable programs, have been followed by bomb threats against children’s hospitals, libraries and schools, endangering and inconveniencing all students, families and residents in these communities.
    • In Wisconsin this past March, multiple bomb threats were made at a middle school located just 20 miles from where the Republican National Convention will be hosted. The threats followed online posts by the anti-LGBTQ extremist Libs of TikTok targeting and harassing a gay staff member at the school.
  • Report connections between anti-LGBTQ extremism and other extremism: states proposing bills targeting mainstream health care for transgender people have also enacted and proposed the most restrictive bans on abortion (including Florida), and denied and denigrated fair elections. Lawmakers in Nebraska passed a bill both banning health care for transgender youth and abortion after 12 weeks. Texas lawmakers proposed more than 140 anti-LGBTQ bills last year as it also targeted women and health care providers over reproductive care and enforced draconian laws.
  • Report connections between anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and policies and mental health challenges for LGBTQ people, specifically LGBTQ youth:
    • LGBTQ youth report significantly more mental health challenges than their cisgender and straight peers in Wisconsin and nationally, according to the CDC, with trans and nonbinary youth reporting the most severe challenges in their mental health and the most barriers to seeking help. Surveys and interviews with LGBTQ youth indicate that hateful rhetoric and anti-LGBTQ policies directly negatively impact their mental health, both in Wisconsin and nationally.
      • Research shows that only 66% of Wisconsin’s transgender youth reported feeling safe at school; and transgender students were more than times likely than cisgender students to report they have been bullied at school.
      • Recent research published in late 2022 also shows that more Wisconsin youth were considering suicide than ever since 2003. This same research shows the LGBTQ youth who were surveyed had far higher rates of considering and attempting suicide than their non-LGBTQ peers. 

Additional resources:

• GALLUP: 6% of U.S. adults are out as LGBTQ, including 20% of Gen Z, the most out generation in history.
• GALLUP: 69% of Americans support marriage equality including a majority of Republicans.
• GLAAD: 84% support equal rights for LGBTQ people.
• GLAAD Media Reference Guide: terminology and 20+ topic areas to learn about and accurately report on LGBTQ people
• Medical Association Statements Transgender Health Care: 30+ statements from every major medical association and world health authority, across specialties and patient lifespan, supporting health care for transgender people. Health care for transgender people is mainstream care with widely held consensus of both the medical and scientific communities.
• Factsheet for Reporters Covering Transgender Health Care: what to know about transgender health care and how to responsibly include trans voices in your coverage.

Contact: press@glaad.org, info@fairwisconsin.com