GLAAD RESPONDS TO PRESIDENT TRUMP’S DISINFORMATION TARGETING LGBTQ AMERICANS DURING JOINT ADDRESS TO CONGRESS

(New York, NY  – March 5, 2025) GLAAD, the world’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) media advocacy organization, is responding to President Donald Trump’s joint address to Congress and the administration’s continued attempts at spreading false and harmful rhetoric about LGBTQ people. 

Among the Falsehoods:

• Trump falsely claimed he “brought back free speech in America,” while his administration has actively and aggressively attempted to censor LGBTQ people in executive orders, removed LGBTQ content from federal websites about public health and about LGBTQ history, and censored the words “transgender” and “queer” from the National Park Service’s site about the Stonewall National Monument.
• Executive orders attempt to block health care providers from providing essential, mainstream care and threaten to pull their funding. The orders have been twice blocked in federal courts.
• Executive orders attempt to end and criminalize diversity, equity and inclusion efforts that recognize and support LGBTQ Americans and all Americans from marginalized backgrounds.
• Trump also praised his recent discriminatory executive orders about transgender people in sports, highlighting Payton McNabb, a former high school volleyball player injured during a match with an alleged transgender player. More than 214,000 female athletes have been injured playing high school and college volleyball, the vast majority of accidents involving cisgender teammates and opponents. McNabb is a paid spokesperson for an anti-transgender group that also advocates for banning health care for transgender people and forcing schools to dangerously out LGBTQ youth without their consent.
• Trump falsely, and bizarrely, claimed taxpayer funds were going towards creating “transgender mice.” These claims reference a misleading investigation by anti-trans politician Nancy Mace which intentionally mischaracterizes NIH-funded grants studying the effects of hormone replacement therapy through animal testing — research that could potentially benefit people of all gender identities. 
• Trump claimed the US was giving “$8 million to promote LGBTQI+ in the African nation of Lesotho, which nobody has ever heard of.” LGBTQ advocates in Lesotho have responded with the fact that they are not receiving US aid. Trump’s ongoing undermining of African nations is consistently and inherently racist, and “promoting LGBTQI+” is an inaccurate smear of all LGBTQ people, who live in countries across the world, including in countries where it is illegal and even punishable by death to be LGBTQ.
• Trump introduced January Littlejohn without noting the record showing that Littlejohn reached out to the family’s school district about their child’s gender identity, and gave approval to let their child and their teachers lead on appropriate school protocols. Littlejohn filed a lawsuit against the Leon County School District in Tallahassee, Florida in 2021, after she started working with a national anti-trans group that has made similar so-called “parents’ rights” claims against other school districts.

Additional Research:

• 91% of non-LGBTQ Americans agree that LGBTQ people should have the freedom to live their life and not be discriminated against.
• Nearly 1 in 2 non-LGBTQ adults say they are worried about the LGBTQ community due to the current political climate and over half think that anti-LGBTQ legislation has gone too far (MRI-Simmons, 2024 October LGBTQ and Gender Identity Study)
• Gallup found nearly 1 in 4 Gen Z adults are LGBTQ, and the total LGBTQ U.S. population is over 9%.
• Gen Z adults are 2.5x more likely to be LGBTQ, 1.4x more likely to KNOW someone in our community, and 1.2x more likely to fully SUPPORT us. (Gallup 2025, GLAAD’s Accelerating Acceptance 2024, GLAAD’s Advertising Visibility Index 2024)
• Nearly 4 in 5 LGBTQ adults, and over half of non-LGBTQ adults say today, they think most companies/brands should support the LGBTQ community. (MRI-Simmons, 2024 October LGBTQ and Gender Identity Study).
• Nearly 3 in 4 of LGBTQ adults, and 2 out of 5 of non-LGBTQ adults say they are more likely to purchase a product or service from a company/brand that supports the LGBTQ community. (MRI-Simmons, 2024 October LGBTQ and Gender Identity Study).

Resources for Accurate and Inclusive Coverage:

• GLAAD: Fact Sheet for Reporters on Transgender Participation in Sports
• Gender Justice Get the Facts: Trans inclusion in sports
• GLAAD Fact Sheet: Terms to avoid: “gender ideology,” “transgenderism.”
• These are made-up terms used by opponents of gender-diverse people in attempts to dehumanize them and justify discrimination and harassment.
• Term to avoid: “biological male” or “biological female” – Biological sex characteristics are complex and not binary, and characteristics like hormones, chromosomes, and anatomy vary from person to person. Terms like “biological male” are inaccurate to describe transgender athletes and some intersex athletes.