GLAAD RELEASES RESEARCH AND RESOURCES FOR ACCURATE COVERAGE OF TRANSGENDER PEOPLE AMID FALSE CLAIMS FROM THE TRUMP WHITE HOUSE AT THE ADDRESS TO CONGRESS

GLAAD: The Trump White House is using the address to Congress to continue its baseless and unhinged disinformation campaign against transgender Americans. The invited guests being deployed to smear transgender people are paid spokespeople for anti-LGBTQ groups that demand schools dangerously out LGBTQ students without their consent, who go against every major medical association supporting medically-necessary health care, and do nothing to promote women and girls in sports or protect everyone’s safety and wellbeing. Every American must demand that leaders stop targeting innocent people to enrich themselves and their billionaire friends. Media must elevate the truth about LGBTQ lives and hold the administration accountable to words and actions that hold all of us back.

(New York, NY  – March 4, 2025) GLAAD, the world’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) media advocacy organization, is releasing a statement and resources ahead of Donald Trump’s address to Congress tonight. 

The Trump White House has announced special guests at the address to Congress who will attempt to continue the administration’s unprecedented campaign targeting transgender people. Here are the facts:

• Records show January Littlejohn of Tallahassee, Florida, worked with the school district to support her nonbinary child, before Littlejohn sued the district with lawyers from a national anti-LGBTQ group.
• Payton McNabb, a former high school volleyball player injured during a match with a transgender player, is a paid spokesperson for an anti-transgender group that also advocates to ban health care and to force schools to dangerously out LGBTQ youth without their consent.
• “Biological man” is not a term used by the medical community, but is used by opponents of trans people to fearmonger and spread disinformation. Scientific research shows human biology is complex and that sex and gender diversity has existed throughout history and cultures.

Additional background:

Payton McNabb played high school volleyball in North Carolina, where she suffered a traumatic brain injury after being hit in the head with a volleyball during a match with a transgender player in 2022. McNabb has since been hired by opponents of transgender people to use her injury to argue that all trans youth should be denied the chance to play sports as their authentic selves.

• McNabb works with a group that aggressively lobbies against transgender people, the so-called Independent Women’s Forum.
• IWF activates against transgender people under the guise of “protecting women,” yet its actions do nothing to protect women:
  • Pushing bans on essential health care for transgender people
  • Supporting the harmful practice of outing LGBTQ students without their consent, without consideration of the risks to doing so to unsupportive parents. Up to 40% of all homeless youth are LGBTQ.
  • Urging the dangerous and illegal relocation of detainees to facilities that do not match their gender identity, action that has been blocked by multiple federal courts as cruel and unusual punishment and a violation of the U.S. Constitution.
  • Ignoring research that shows states that include transgender students in sports actually have more girls playing than states with bans.
  • McNabb is among more than 200,000 high school and college female volleyball players who have reported injuries including head trauma since 2012. The vast majority of these injuries and accidents involve cisgender competitors and teammates. No one is calling for cisgender athletes involved in accidents to be banned from sports.
  • There has been no legislation proposed at the federal level by anti-trans activists that addresses actual problems of safety and equity for women and girls’ sports, including regulations to protect athletes from abusive coaches and fans, ensure equal facilities and marketing, or ways to expand access to health care and recovery, for all players including people like McNabb.

Independent Women’s Forum’s legal director, May Mailman, recently transitioned to serve as White House legal counsel. Mailman has promoted the White House’s unprecedented campaign against transgender people. Mailman and IWF worked with Riley Gaines, who has parlayed her fifth place finish into a career of testifying in states she does not live in to support full bans on transgender youth as young as kindergarten from playing sports.

• January Littlejohn filed a lawsuit against the Leon County School District in Tallahassee, Florida in 2021, claiming the school discussed restrooms and name change requests with their child without their consent. However, a public records request showed that the family had ongoing communications with the school and gave approval to let their child and their teachers lead on appropriate school protocols.
• The Littlejohns acknowledged at the time that their child was nonbinary and wished to use a new name.
• Littlejohn has since been associated with the disgraced book banning group Moms for Liberty, and Do No Harm, which produced model legislation in at least three states to strip access to health care, an Associated Press analysis found

Additional resources:

Fact Sheet: Term to Avoid: “Gender Ideology”

Fact Sheet: Transgender People in Sports

Fact Sheet: Intentional Mischaracterizations of Transgender Health Care

GLAAD: Analysis of Coverage of Trump Executive Orders about Transgender People, of 35 stories, only 13 included transgender voices

GLAAD Trump Accountability Tracker: 240+ documented attacks in policy and rhetoric against LGBTQ Americans

Media are urged to include transgender voices in all stories about transgender people, and facts to counter rhetoric from anti-LGBTQ politicians and activists.