Trump Accountability Tracker

20

attacks

ON LGBTQ PEOPLE

Presidency

01.08.21 The day after Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in a deadly rampage, HHS went public with a final rule to rescind regulations barring discrimination against LGBTQ Americans seeking to adopt or be adopted, or health services including HIV prevention.

2020

12.07.20 Labor Department, led by Secretary Eugene Scalia, announces rule-change implementation to allow federal contractors to discriminate against LGBTQ workers via religious exemption. The rule change takes effect Jan. 8, with 12 days remaining in the Trump administration, and will require a full rule-change process for the new administration to revise.

10.24.20 Report shows U.S. State Department has been omitting information about human rights abuses against LGBTQ and intersex people, as well as information about violence against women and girls. The Asylum Research Center report from the UK says there’s concern the omissions will result in the erasure of abuses used to make asylum claims and decisions, with LGBTQI+ people being returned to dangerous home countries.

10.17.20 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.

10.17.20 Tiffany Trump appears at campaign event, falsely claims 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 very existence.

10.10.20 Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, warned by his advance team that an event with the anti-gay Florida Family Policy Council had homophobic advertisements/flyers at the site and that the group promoted dangerous, debunked conversion therapy, appears at October 3 event anyway. State Dept. aides were reportedly appalled at the speaking event and that Pompeo touted it afterward, in a department-wide memo.

10.05.20 On the first day of the Supreme Court’s new term, Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito “take a legal baseball bat” to the court’s 2015 decision legalizing marriage equality, claiming the decision “enables courts and governments to brand religious adherents who believe marriage equality is between one man and one woman as bigots.” Justice Thomas writes that Kim Davis, the public official who had refused to issue marriage licenses based on her religious belief, is a “victim” of a so-called “cavalier treatment of religion.”

09.29.20 President Trump’s son Eric claims that LGBTQ people “come out in full force” to support his father. GLAAD releases a scientific poll of LGBTQ voters showing 76% support VP Joe Biden.

09.26.20 Legal scholars conclude Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett’s resume could make her the most conservative new justice since Clarence Thomas. On gun rights—would probably strike down “red flag” laws to temporarily take firearms away from dangerous people. She has “voiced skepticism about the Affordable Care Act. A “dream candidate” for conservatives focused on overturning abortion rights.

09.26.20 President Trump 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. At least 11 people at the White House event announcing Barrett later test positive for COVID-19, including President Trump, his wife, former senior adviser, press secretary, the president of Notre Dame University, and two members of the Judiciary Committee who say they will quarantine for ten days, then attend Barrett’s confirmation hearing.

09.18.20 Within an hour of the announcement of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announces “President Trump’s nominee will receive a vote on the floor of the U.S. Senate.”

09.18.20 Education Secretary Betsy DeVos vows to withhold federal funds from Connecticut school districts that participate in athletic conference 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.

09.16.20 Trump administration deploys legal strategy to avoid enforcing The U.S. Supreme Court Bostock ruling extending protections for LGBTQ workers, pushing rules that allow shelters and schools to insist access be based only on gender assigned at birth.

09.10.20 President Trump reveals additions to his list of potential Supreme Court appointees, which include Republican senators who have campaigned against marriage equality, a Trump-appointed federal judge with ties to an anti-LGBTQ organization identified as a hate group, and Trump’s former Solicitor General who has filed briefs and argued before the Court to allow organizations to discriminate against LGBTQ people. Axios reports the list was partly motivated by the Court’s ruling in June 2020 to expand LGBTQ protections in the workplace.

09.08.20 The Trump administration files 36-page brief with Indiana Supreme Court to support a school’s alleged right to fire a teacher for being gay.

08.31.20 White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany falsely characterizes a State Department policy denying citizenship to children of same-sex couples born via surrogacy overseas. McEnany claimed the policy denied citizenship based solely on surrogacy when in fact only LGBTQ surrogacy families had been rejected. McEnany then read what she called the administration’s LGBTQ “achievements,” a list she has previously read and which has been debunked as anti-LGBTQ.

08.28.20 The Trump State Department says it’s reviewing a federal judge’s ruling with the Department of Justice, ordering State to issue a U.S. passport for the daughter of a married gay couple from Georgia and ruling her a citizen since birth. The judge had ruled the State Department policy requiring a biological connection raised serious constitutional questions for same-sex couples.

08.24.20 The Washington Post gives 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.

08.21.20 The State Department is fighting a ruling to recognize citizenship of a young girl with gay parents. She was born in Canada via surrogate, and although her parents are legally married and U.S. citizens, the State Dept. argued in federal court she was “born out of wedlock” and therefore not entitled to birthright citizenship. A judge deemed the controversial State policy unconstitutional in June.

08.20.20 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.

08.19.20 The Department of Health and Human Services has been systematically discriminating against LGBTQ+ families in federally supported foster care programs, according to a new report from the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee. The committee found that federally-funded agencies were granted a waiver to allow discrimination based on religion and sexual orientation, intentionally harming LGBTQ children, adults, and families.

08.10.20 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.

07.29.20 Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos visit a private school in Raleigh, NC, lauding its reopening for in-person education despite the coronavirus epidemic. Thales Academy founder Bob Luddy is one of the biggest Republican donors in North Carolina. Luddy also founded Franklin Academy, a Wake Forest charter school that changed its school handbook after criticism of rules prohibiting LGBT discussion or affirmation. Students protested Pence’s visit with signs promoting LGBT rights and remote schooling. Within a week of Pence and DeVos’ visit, students at a nearby sister school had to quarantine after a student tested positive for COVID-19.

07.28.20 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.

07.28.20 The Trump Administration plans to limit work permits for undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children from two years to one year. The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in June that the administration could not carry out its plans to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program because it did not provide legal justification for terminating it. Of the 640,000 “Dreamers,” 81,000 identify as LGBT and 39,000 have participated in DACA.

07.27.20 After his administration supported the losing side at the Supreme Court on LGBTQ job protections, President Trump promises to choose from a new list of conservative jurists in his next court appointments. One potential candidate is Kyle Duncan, appointed by President Trump to the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Duncan’s anti-LGBT record includes arguing against trans student Gavin Grimm’s request to use the restroom consistent with his gender identity and arguing against national marriage equality and calling the Supreme Court ruling in favor of it an “abject failure” that “imperils civic peace.”

07.27.20 President Trump’s niece, Mary Trump, says it’s “absurd” that her uncle believes he has support in the LGBTQ community, that he’s uncomfortable with gay people and trans people, because “he’s uncomfortable with anyone that’s different… differently-abled, different color of skin, and different beliefs… He’s not [an] ally of the gay community, or really any community for that matter. Donald doesn’t have any concern or beliefs beyond his own self-interest.”

07.23.20 Trump administration revokes HUD regulation designed to eliminate racial disparities in the suburbs. Housing advocates say Trump’s claims about the rule are inaccurate and racist. Only 30% of Black LGBT Americans own a home compared to 64.3% of the overall population.

07.23.20 Former leader of now-defunct conversion therapy ministry, Exodus International, reveals previous lobbying work he did with members of the Trump administration. Randy Thomas has since denounced conversion therapy and announced his engagement to Dan Scobey. “Given my experience,” Thomas said, “I believe Mike Pence is still supportive of ex-gay ministry and he supports the efforts to try to convert people from gay to straight.” Thomas also references working with Kellyanne Conway and other former Republican leaders, lobbying against marriage equality and hate crime legislation.

07.22.20 Jenna Ellis, senior legal advisor to Donald Trump, retweets an article that promotes conversion therapy. Psychologists worldwide confirm LGBTQ people cannot change their gender identity or sexual orientation through conversion therapy. The American Psychiatric Association condemns such treatment and describes any attempts to change a person’s sexual orientation as unethical. Ellis has a long record of racist and homophobic rhetoric, including criticizing her own Republican party for any attempt to embrace LGBTQ rights after the Pulse massacre killed 49 people, many of whom were LGBTQ.

07.17.20 Defense Department confirms that new guidance to prohibit the display of Confederate flags on military institutions also includes bans on LGBTQ Pride flags. The Modern Military Association of America says the Pentagon is twisting the Confederate flag ban to achieve an anti-LGBTQ goal.

07.17.20 New details emerge from 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.”

07.17.20 The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals upholds lower court ruling blocking Trump administration from implementing new restrictions on people seeking asylum in the U.S. The proposal would eliminate gender-based asylum, despite dire consequences for women and girls seeking protection from extreme abuse and could result in judges rejecting similar claims based on gender identity and sexual orientation.

07.16.20 U.S. Supreme Court allows policy banning voting rights to 1.4 million potential voters in Florida. Florida governor and Trump supporter Ron DeSantis and Republicans in the state legislature voted to require ex-felons pay court fines and fees before being allowed to vote, despite an amendment passed by Florida voters in 2018 restoring their right to vote. In May, a U.S. district judge ruled that the policy amounted to an unconstitutional voting tax. LGBTQ people are disproportionately incarcerated, especially young LGBTQ people and LGBTQ people of color, because they face housing, police and job discrimination.

07.16.20 Secretary of State Mike Pompeo headlines a report from a pseudo-advisory group he appointed, criticizing efforts for racial justice and prioritizing religious freedom and property rights above all other human rights concerns. The so-called Commission on Unalienable Rights report refers to abortion, affirmative action, and same-sex marriage as “divisive social and political controversies in the United States” rather than legally determined and settled rights. Pompeo delivered his speech before a large indoor crowd, despite urgent restrictions against such gatherings because of their documented increased risk of spreading the coronavirus.

07.15.20 Former football coach Tommy Tuberville defeats Trump’s former U.S. Attorney General and former Alabama Republican Senator Jeff Sessions in the state’s GOP primary runoff. Sessions’ record on LGBTQ issues includes opposing all bills on LGBTQ equality throughout his decades in the U.S. Senate and continuing his assault on LGBTQ rights as Attorney General. Tuberville is a robust supporter of Trump, with a record of anti-LGBTQ rhetoric.

07.13.20 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.

07.13.20 Trump ally and harsh opponent of LGBTQ rights Andrzej Duda wins second term as president of Poland. Duda governed and campaigned against LGBTQ rights, calling them an “ideology” worse than Soviet-era communism. Duda’s nationalist-conservative party rules the Polish Parliament with an aim to symbolically and literally erase queer Poles from social and political life, making Poland the least friendly country in the European Union to LGBTQ people. Trump and Duda have met 11 times, including at the White House in June, the first foreign leader to visit since the coronavirus pandemic hit the United States.

07.10.20 Anti-LGBTQ+ groups tied to President Donald Trump received loans from the Small Business Administration as part of the Paycheck Protection Program. Several anti-LGBTQ organizations receiving money are designated hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center including Liberty Counsel, American Family Association, Pacific Justice Institute. Companies tied to Trump’s adult children, son-in-law and millionaire friends also received money. At least $1.4 billion in taxpayer-backed funds went to the U.S. Roman Catholic Church, with millions going to dioceses that paid massive settlements or sought bankruptcy protection after covering up for pedophile priests. The Church used special exemptions granted by the Trump administration to circumvent limitations on aid imposed on every other organization.

07.01.20 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.

06.22.20 In his first in-depth response to the landmark United States Supreme Court ruling protecting millions of Americans from being fired for being LGBT, President Trump says he was “surprised” by the decision, written by his first nominated justice Neil Gorsuch. “We’ve had a lot of losses with a court that was supposed to be in our favor,” Trump said.

06.19.20 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.

06.14.20 Dept. of Housing and Urban Development considers rolling back a rule requiring homeless shelters to accommodate transgender people. Single-sex shelters may consider biological sex, instead of how a transgender person identifies, in placement and accommodation decisions. HUD acknowledges it has no data to show transgender women pose any kind of risk.

06.12.20 Protections rolled back for transgender Americans seeking healthcare under new rule announced by HHS, four years to the day of the Pulse nightclub attack. Two dozen Democratic attorneys general have sued the Trump administration to block its rule ending protection against discrimination in health care for transgender patients. “It is never acceptable to deny health care to Americans who need it, but it is especially egregious to do so in the middle of a pandemic,” said New York Attorney General Letitia James, who is leading the coalition.

06.08.20 The Council for Global Equality calls out Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for refusing to acknowledge LGBTQ Pride Month or the International Day against Homophobia, Biphobia, Interphobia and Transphobia. Secretary Pompeo has promoted international policies used to deny LGBTI citizens equal rights in employment, health, and education.

06.05.20 President Trump’s Solicitor General files 35-page amicus brief to the Supreme Court to defend an agency’s right to discriminate against same-sex couples looking to become foster parents. The agency actions violated Philadelphia’s anti-discrimination ordinances.

06.05.20 New Trump appointee to U.S. foreign aid agency USAID has history of online attacks against the “homo-empire” pushing “tyrannical LGBT agenda.” Merritt Corrigan formerly worked for the Republican National Committee and the Hungarian embassy in Washington. She has praised authoritarian Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. USAID says it has a “zero-tolerance policy of any form or harassment based on gender, race, sexual orientation, [and] religion” and is working for a world in which LGBT people are “respected and able to live with dignity, free from discrimination, persecution and violence.”

06.04.20 Support among evangelicals drops 15 points and falls 27 points among white Catholics. President Trump’s handling of the protests following the death of George Floyd at the hands of police prompts rare rebuke from televangelist Pat Robertson.

06.03.20 United States Solicitor General and 76 members of Congress (signed names here) file briefs at the Supreme Court to support discrimination against LGBTQ couples looking to become foster families.

06.02.20 A day after clearing protestors with tear gas, flash bomb grenades and police in riot gear, President Trump signs executive order supporting “international religious freedom.” Stages another photo op in front of religious site. The Archbishop of Washington calls the visit “baffling and reprehensible.”

06.01.20 Thousands of protestors demanding justice for George Floyd and against racism and police brutality are cleared by coordinated militarized crackdown in the park in front of the White House. President Trump uses law enforcement officers from multiple agencies to secure his walk to St. John’s Church to hold up a Bible, surrounded by five white advisers, for a campaign photo op. Religious leaders describe the actions as hypocritical and obscene.

05.28.20 Trump administration threatens to withhold funding from states that allow athletes to compete under the gender with which they identify. In a 45-page letter, the Dept. of Education claims policies supporting transgender athletes violate Title IX, the federal civil rights law guaranteeing equal education opportunities for women. The Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference says its policy follows a state law barring schools from discriminating against transgender students.

05.19.20—The Trump administration is using departments of State, Justice, Health and Human Services, Labor and Housing and Urban Development to push religious exemptions at the expense of LGBTQ rights, detailed by the ACLU, Center for American Progress and the Movement Advancement Project.

05.15.20—President Trump’s new press secretary Kayleigh McEnany gives false answers about the administration’s hurtful policies against LGBTQ Americans. McEnany deflected questions about her opposition in 2015 to same-sex marriage, saying arguments for marriage equality were driven by arguments based on “farcical blabber.” “I’m not up here to give my personal views on anything,” McEnany said. “What I’d say is that I’m very proud of this administration, which has been fair and equitable and just to all Americans, and open to all Americans as it should be.” As of this date, GLAAD has counted more than 150 attacks against LGBTQ Americans from the Trump administration.

05.15.20—Newly-surfaced video and audio shows Trump campaign adviser and senior legal adviser Jenna Ellis grotesquely and falsely claim same-sex marriage will lead to legally and socially-accepted bestiality and pedophilia.

05.15.20—U.S. Navy grants 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.

05.05.20—HHS ruling targets LGBTQ youth during public health crisis. The Trump administration ends LGBTQ data collection on foster children and adoptive parents, silencing issues potentially faced by LGBTQ-identifying children in finding permanent homes. Christina Wilson Remlin, lead counsel for Children’s Rights, calls it “a huge mistake that will harm the children we serve.”

04.24.20—The Trump administration moved to end a policy that protected LGBTQ patients from discrimination, potentially enabling hospitals and health workers to more easily discriminate against patients based on their gender or sexual orientation. This move alarmed health experts who warned that the regulatory rollback could harm vulnerable people during a pandemic.

04.08.20—President Trump appointed Kayleigh McEnany, who has a history of using the press to attack LGBTQ people, as Press Secretary.

04.03.20—The Trump Adminsitration’s 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.

03.25.20—Preacher Ralph Drollinger, who leads a weekly Bible study for Cabinet Secretaries in the Trump Administration, wrote that he believes the coronavirus pandemic is a “consequential” or ”sowing and reaping” form of wrath that directly stems from tolerance of ”a proclivity toward lesbianism and homosexuality.”

01.16.20—A directive by the Trump Administration across multiple government agencies was issued to strengthen access to federal dollars for religious-based organizations—even if the organization is anti-LGBTQ or has an anti-LGBTQ record.

2019

12.27.19—A report in the HuffPost revealed the Trump Administration’s erasure of pro-LGBTQ policies on Inauguration Day extended beyond government websites and throughout the entire federal government, including the Department of Interior.

12.17.19—The Trump Administration appoints notorious anti-LGBTQ activist Tim Wildmon to the White House’s Faith Advisory Council.

12.04.19—In two straight years, the Trump Administration announced its plans to tighten regulations for food stamp access under the government’s SNAP program, affecting about 755,000 Americans—including the LGBTQ community.

12.01.19—For a third consecutive year, President Trump omits any mention of the LGBTQ community during his presidential proclamation recognizing December 1st as World AIDS Day.

11.01.19—The Trump Administration announced they are allowing taxpayer-funded adoption agencies to use “religious beliefs” as an excuse to deny placement of children into homes of LGBTQ couples—simply for being LGBTQ.

10.11.19—The Trump Administration announced its support of allowing faith-based schools to use religion as a right to discriminate against LGBTQ teachers and staff and removing pro-LGBTQ curriculum in classrooms.

10.01.19—CNN reports that the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) sent a letter to members of the Ames City Council asking the city to remove pro-LGBTQ themed crosswalks in the community, citing so-called “federal traffic control standards.”

09.27.19—The Trump Administration pens a “statement of interest” in support of granting the Archdiocese the ability to discriminate or even fire a person from their job because they are LGBTQ.

09.20.19—The Department of Education removes “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” as terms to track bullying data for the agency, inserting “sex stereotyping” as a protected class instead. This eliminates any anti-LGBTQ bullying tracking data from the agency.

09.19.19—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.

08.23.19—The Trump Administration submits an amicus brief asking the U.S. Supreme Court to rule against workplace protections for LGBTQ Americans.

08.16.19—The Trump administration’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.

08.14.19—The Trump Administration revealed they plan to grant federal contractors the ability to use “religious exemptions” as an excuse to discriminate against LGBTQ Americans at the workplace.

08.14.19—The Trump Administration urged the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to reverse their Obama-era policy of providing workplace protections for LGBTQ Americans. The request comes weeks before oral arguments begin at the U.S. Supreme Court on October 8.

08.09.19—President Trump took to Twitter to attack Fox News’s Shepard Smith, an openly LGBTQ news anchor for the cable news station.

07.31.19—President Trump took to Twitter to attack esteemed journalist and out CNN anchor Don Lemon.

07.25.19—A Trump Administration official informs U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) that the government is separating families with parents who have HIV and AIDS, citing it as a communicable disease. However, the Administration admits they are not separating families who have other communicable diseases, such as the flu—further stigmatizing the HIV and AIDS epidemic.

07.08.19—The Trump Administration’s State Department creates a “Commission on Unalienable Rights” aimed at providing “an informed review of the role of human rights in American foreign policy.” However, seven of the appointees have disturbing anti-LGBTQ records, putting acceptance for the global LGBTQ community at risk.

06.28.19—President Donald Trump used a press conference at the G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan to provide praise for Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, an anti-LGBTQ politician who has targeted LGBTQ people in his nation since the day he took office.

06.24.19—Freedom of Information Act requested documents show an effort to explain why the federal government was changing its involvement in a ceremony to honor the Stonewall Inn as a national monument and fly the LGBTQ Pride flag over federal property. The documents detail the NPS talking points: “The flag pole is not on federal property, nor is it managed by the National Park Service… The assertion that the Pride flag was the first to fly over a national monument was covered by several media outlets. A few others claimed it was the first to fly over federal property on a permanent basis. We never made this claim. The media interest in this supposed precedent is what prompted our interest in whether either statement was factually accurate. NPS never pulled our support. The permit was never in question. We staffed the event, supplied power and the amplification equipment. The only issue was whether we would have someone offer welcoming remarks. We don’t do that for every event we permit on our property and we unfortunately sent mixed signals here.”

06.12.19—President Trump failed to recognize the third anniversary of the horrific shooting at Orlando’s Pulse Nightclub, which killed 49 LGBTQ people.

06.07.19—The Trump Administration denies all U.S. Embassy buildings from flying the historic LGBTQ Pride Flag on embassy flagpoles in honor of June being National LGBTQ Pride Month.

06.05.19—The Trump Administration announced they would cut federal funding for an HIV and AIDS research program conducted by the University of California that uses fetal tissue in its research.

06.05.19—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.

05.24.19—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.

05.24.19—The Trump Administration announced plans to begin implementing a new policy which would allow adoption agencies to deny LGBTQ couples the ability to adopt based on so-called “religious exemptions.”

05.22.19—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.

05.17.19—NewNowNext releases report highlighting the anti-LGBTQ record of media mogul Conrad Black, a convicted felon who was pardoned by President Donald Trump this week.

05.13.19—President Trump declares his opposition to the Equality Act, a direct flip flop from his previous stance on the issue more than a decade ago.

05.02.19—The Trump Administration, via the Department of Health and Human Services, issued a new rule allowing doctors and physicians the opportunity to deny Americans health care services based on religious beliefs, including seeking a “religious exemption” to deny life-saving health care for LGBTQ Americans.

04.17.19—The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced the agency would no longer be collecting data on LGBTQ youth in foster care programs.

04.12.19—President Trump and his administration implement its ban barring transgender Americans from openly serving in the country’s armed services.

04.10.19—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.

04.05.19—President Trump congratulates election of Brian Hagedorn, an anti-LGBTQ activist who wants to ban LGBTQ children from schools and believes discredited accusations against LGBTQ Americans.

04.04.19—Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson refused to reinstate housing protection guidelines that would prevent LGBTQ Americans from experiencing discrimination while attaining a home, which include access to homeless shelters.

03.27.19—Education Secretary Betsy DeVos refused to say on the record whether or not she opposed discrimination against LGBTQ people at schools during a House subcommittee hearing on education appropriations.

03.25.19—Trump Administration officials within the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) were accused of abusing—including harassment and denying health care services—12 immigrants who identify as LGBTQ.

03.12.19—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.

03.11.19—In its Fiscal Year Budget for 2020, the Trump Administration announced new plans to cut $250 million from the Global Fund, slash $1.5 billion from PEPFAR, and “limit future spending” on Medicaid—three components in the ongoing fight against HIV and AIDS.

02.27.19—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.

02.08.19—One day after defending a Michigan adoption agency during the National Prayer Breakfast, the Trump Administration confirms they intended to grant faith-based adoption agencies federal funds in its upcoming 2020 White House Budget. These faith-based adoption agencies actively use “religious exemptions” as an excuse to deny LGBTQ families the ability to adopt a child.

02.07.19—At the annual National Prayer Breakfast, President Trump praised Second Lady Karen Pence for teaching at a private Christian school known openly to discriminate against LGBTQ students and teachers,and defended a Michigan adoption agency for refusing to serve an LGBTQ family based on so-called “religious exemptions.”

01.28.19—President 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 with President Trump at the White House 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.

01.23.19—The Trump Administration approved a waiver request by South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster, which could give faith-based adoption agencies the ability to deny LGBTQ couples adoption rights based on so-called “religious exemptions”—while being funded by taxpayers.

01.11.19—More than 13,000 federal workers identifying as LGBTQ do not receive a paycheck as President Trump’s government shutdown becomes the longest shut down in U.S. history.

01.03.19—In a leaked memo by the Justice Department, the Trump Administration considers dissolving the “disparate impact” regulation, which grants marginalized communities (including LGBTQ Americans) legal protections from unintended discrimination in housing, education, and other ways of life.

01.01.19—NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine invites Dmitry Rogozin, Director General of Roscosmos, to visit the United States. Rogozin, a politician, is vehemently anti-LGBTQ and even compared the community to ISIS.

2018

12.21.18—The Department of Justice issued a “Statement of Interest” on a pending case involving the University of Iowa and an anti-LGBTQ student organization. The DOJ sided with the student group that indirectly bars an LGBTQ person from joining their organization. This indirect discrimination is known as a “disparate impact” form of discrimination.

12.20.18—The Trump Administration tightens its regulations on access to food stamps, affecting about 1 in 4 LGBTQ adults who apply for the SNAP program.

12.19.18—The Trump Administration discharges two service members in the Air Force after disclosing their HIV-positive status to the Department of Defense.

12.09.18—The Trump Administration quietly shuts down a HIV research facility in Montana after the administration objected to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and its scientists using fetal tissue as a part of its research to find a cure for HIV and AIDS.

11.30.18—The Trump Administration signs a trade agreement with Canada and Mexico that makes it clear the United States doesn’t have to proactively combat anti-LGBTQ discrimination in order to adhere to the agreement.

11.23.18—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.

10.25.18—U.S. officials at the United Nations are seeking to replace mentions of “gender” (e.g. “gender-based violence”), with alternative terminology, like “violence against women,” erasing all references to gender identity and the issues relating to trans and gender non-conforming people.

10.24.18—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.

10.21.18—The Department of Health and Human Services proposes in a new memo 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.

10.01.18—The Trump Administration’s State Department announces a new policy that the same-sex, unmarried partners of United Nations employees will not be granted visas to stay in the U.S., effective immediately. In doing so, diplomats in same-sex partnerships who come from countries where same-sex marriage is illegal will either be forced to marry in the U.S. and risk repercussions, including threats, harassment, and even incarceration back home; quit their jobs; or separate for the sake of one partner’s career.

07.30.18—President Trump’s Attorney General Jeff Sessions announces his new ‘Religious Liberty’ Task Force at the Department of Justice’s Religious Liberty Summit. As stated by Sessions, the group’s purpose is to ensure that the Justice Department upholds the administration’s guidance for religious exemptions, which he released in October.

07.09.18—President Trump nominates Brett Kavanaugh for the U.S. Supreme Court seat made vacant by the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy. Kavanaugh has an extremely conservative record and has the support of Family Research Council (FRC), designated as an anti-LGBTQ hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

05.11.18—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.

05.03.18—President Trump signs an executive order to create a new “White House Faith and Opportunity Initiative” that will be tasked with working on so-called ”religious liberty” issues across federal agencies.

04.24.18—Reporting reveals that the White House is seeking to roll back vital data collection on LGBTQ youth by raising the minimum age that LGBTQ people can be asked questions about their sexual orientation and gender identity in the Department of Justice’s National Crime Victimization Survey.

04.18.18—Reporting reveals that President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief gave a sizable grant to the anti-LGBTQ group Focus on the Family Africa on Sept. 18, 2017.

03.23.18—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.

03.23.18—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.

03.20.18—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.”

03.20.18—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.

03.13.18—President Trump fires Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and announces plans to nominate anti-LGBTQ and anti-Muslim politician Mike Pompeo as his replacement.

03.08.18—President Trump hosts Brent Bozell, the anti-LGBTQ founder of the fringe right-wing group Media Resource Center, at a White House roundtable.

03.05.18—The Department Housing and Urban Development Secretary moved to change its official mission statement by removing promises of inclusive and discrimination-free communities.

02.28.18—Following Billy Graham’s death, President Trump praised the work of his son Franklin Graham, who has spoken out against LGBTQ people, with Franklin writing, “Indeed, the Scriptures reveal that when people forgo God’s truth for Satan’s lies, they become increasingly immoral. The consequences are frightening: ‘God gave them over to degrading passions’ including homosexuality, and ‘gave them over to a depraved mind’ (Romans 1:26, 28, NASB).”

02.12.18—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.

01.19.18—Reporting reveals that Trump administration appointee Carl Higbie had made extreme racist, sexist, anti-Muslim and anti-LGBTQ comments on the radio. He was removed from his White House position but then hired by “America First Policies,” a nonprofit created by six of Trump’s top campaign aides to back the White House agenda.

01.18.18—The Department of Health and Human Services created a new department that shields healthcare workers who refuse to treat LGBTQ patients or those living with HIV by claiming moral or religious objections.

01.16.18—President Trump promotes anti-LGBTQ religious exemptions in his Religious Freedom Day proclamation, which reads “No American—whether a nun, nurse, baker, or business owner—should be forced to choose between the tenets of faith or adherence to the law.”

2017

12.29.17—President Trump fires the entire White House Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS.

12.22.17—President Trump signs the GOP tax bill, which targets low-income and LGBTQ communities, into law.

12.15.17—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.

12.05.17—White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders tells reporters that President Trump backs the position that businesses owners should be able to put up signs saying they won’t serve LGBT customers.

12.05.17—The Department of Justice argues in support of baker who denied service to a gay couple during the Supreme Court oral arguments for the case Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission.

12.04.17—President Trump endorses Roy Moore, who has an anti-LGBTQ record and multiple well-documented accusations of sexual assault, abuse, and assessment, in the Alabama special Senate Election.

12.01.17—President Trump leaves out the LGBTQ community and people of color in World AIDS Day Proclamation.

10.17.17—President Trump delivers the keynote address at the anti-LGBTQ Heritage Foundation President’s Club annual meeting.

10.16.17—In a profile on Vice President Mike Pence that ran in The New Yorker, President Trump reportedly joked of Pence when asked about LGBTQ rights: “Don’t ask that guy—he wants to hang them all!”

10.13.17—President Trump becomes the first sitting president to speak at the Family Research Council’s Values Voter Summit, a convening of fringe groups united around discrimination against LGBTQ people.

10.11.17—The Trump Administration’s National Park Services withdrew its sponsorship of New York City’s first permanent Pride Flag, located outside of the historic Stonewall Inn, and dropped out of its pre-scheduled participation in the flag dedication ceremony.

10.06.17—The Department of Justice issues a sweeping ”religious exemptions” guidance which invites taxpayer-funded federal agencies, government employees, and government contractors to legally discriminate against LGBTQ employees as long as they cite a religious belief as the reason for doing it.

10.06.17—The Department of Health and Human Services rolls back the Affordable Care Act’s birth control benefit, allowing the use of “religious exemptions” to deny health care to women, trans men, and gender non-conforming people who rely on the no-copay contraception benefit.

10.05.17—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.

10.03.17—The Department of Health and Human Services erases all mentions of the LGBTQ community and their health needs in its strategic plan for the fiscal year 2018-2022.

09.22.17—The Education Department rescinds the Obama Administration-era Title IX guidance on investigating campus sexual assault; LGBTQ students experience sexual harassment at disproportionately high rates.

09.08.17—Reporting reveals the CIA canceled a planned speech about diversity and LGBTQ rights set to be given by Judy and Dennis Shepard, founders of the Matthew Shepard Foundation.

09.07.17—The Justice Department files an amicus brief in support of “religious exemptions” to discriminate against LGBTQ customers.

09.07.17—The Education Department announces they will roll back Obama Administration-era Title IX guidelines which protected sexual assault survivors on college and university campuses.

09.07.17—President 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.

09.07.17—President Trump nominates Jeff Mateer, who has an extensive anti-LGBTQ record including calling trans children part of “Satan’s plan,” to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.

09.05.17—President Trump ends the DACA program, which protected an estimated 800,000 young undocumented immigrants, including an estimated 39,000 LGBTQ DREAMers, from detention and deportation.

08.27.17—Reporting reveals the CIA consulted with Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, an anti-LGBTQ hate group according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

08.25.17—President Trump officially directs 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.

08.25.17—President Trump pardons former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio who was convicted of criminal contempt in his tactics targeting undocumented immigrants.

08.12.17—President Trump refused to condemn white supremacists who chanted violently racist and anti-LGBTQ slurs during a rally in Charlottesville, VA. In a statement, President Trump blamed the “egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides.”

08.03.17—President Trump nominates L. Steven Grasz, who has close ties to the anti-LGBTQ group Focus on the Family, to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.

07.26.17—An official White House webpage directs readers to an article published by the anti-LGBTQ Heritage Foundation that calls being transgender a “psychological disorder.”

07.26.17—The Justice Department files a brief opposing workplace nondiscrimination protections for the LGBTQ community under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in the case Zarda v. Altitude Express.

07.26.17—President 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.

07.25.17—Reporting reveals Vice President Mike Pence advocated for the removal of healthcare benefits for transgender servicemembers within the U.S. military behind closed doors.

07.13.17—President Trump nominates Mark Norris, who supported legislation that allowed mental health counselors to discriminate against LGBTQ clients during his time as a TN state senator, to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee.

07.12.17—President Trump grants a one-on-one interview with Pat Robertson, a longtime anti-LGBTQ activist and Televangelist. Pres. Trump said, “The Evangelicals were so great to me, and they did, they came out in massive numbers, and on top of that I got 83%… I’ve gotten rid of the Johnson amendment… so I can hear from you and others, Franklin Graham, Dr. Jeffress, Robert Jeffress, who is such a great guy.” Jeffress, an Evangelical pastor, has said: “What they [homosexuals] do is filthy. It is so degrading that it is beyond description. And it is their filthy behavior that explains why they are so much more prone to disease.”

07.12.17—In a closed-door and unannounced opportunity, President Trump poses for a photograph with notorious anti-LGBTQ activists who wish to promote so-called “religious exemptions” that would harm LGBTQ Americans across the nation.

06.29.17—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.

06.28.17—The Department of Justice ejected reporters covering a DOJ Pride event hosted by LGBTQ affinity groups for federal workers.

06.27.17—The Trump Administration failed to mention the LGBTQ community in their National HIV Testing Day statement.

06.21.17—Reporting reveals President Trump hired a lawyer who openly supported Russian President Vladimir Putin’s anti-LGBTQ law banning so-called “gay propaganda” from Russia, a law that Europe’s top human rights court found to be illegal.

06.17.17—Six members of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS resigned saying that President Trump “simply does not care” about combating the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

06.16.17—An obtained internal memo from the Department of Education Office for Civil Rights reveals guidelines to dismiss complaints about bathroom access filed by transgender students.

06.15.17—Department of Commerce removes sexual orientation and gender identity from the agency’s Equal Employment Policy; LGBTQ protections have been explicitly included since 2010. Only after fierce opposition did Department of Commerce Secretary Ross change it back.

06.15.17—The Department of Education invites Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council, two anti-LGBTQ organizations, to be speakers for a day-long conference on engaging fathers in their children’s education and welfare.

06.15.17—The Department of Education rolls back the Office for Civil Rights’ expansive approach to investigating civil rights complaints that seek to protect LGBTQ students, and other marginalized communities, from discrimination at school.

06.07.17—President Trump nominates Stephen S. Schwartz, who worked with North Carolina legislators in support of the anti-trans legislation HB2, to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.

06.01.17—President Trump declines to issue a presidential proclamation designating June as LGBTQ Pride Month, breaking with an eight-year precedent set by President Barack Obama to honor and support LGBTQ Americans.

05.22.17—The Trump Administration grants White House press credentials to a reporter from Infowars, a conspiracy outlet that regularly peddles dangerous, offensive, and anti-LGBTQ content.

05.08.17—Department of Agriculture issues new so-called “religious freedom” policy statement, a move praised by the anti-LGBTQ Family Research Council.

05.0417—President Trump signs a “religious liberty” executive order. Although this EO does not target LGBTQ Americans, it is the first step in what could be a much broader permission slip for discrimination against the LGBTQ community.

04.14.17—The Trump Administration files to dismiss a lawsuit accusing North Carolina of discriminating against the LGBTQ community in response to HB2, despite the similarities of the HB142 replacement.

04.10.17: A ProPublica investigation reveals the Trump Administration appointed James Renne, a key staffer involved in the Bush-era anti-LGBTQ purge of gay government employees, to a senior role at the Department of Agriculture.

03.28.17: The Trump Administration cancels plans to add the LGBTQ community to its upcoming 2020 U.S. Census.

03.28.17: Under his proposed budget for the U.S. Congress, The Trump Administration offered to cut HIV and AIDS research funding under the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

03.24.17: President Trump appointed anti-LGBTQ activist and former Heritage Foundation employee Roger Severino to lead the Health and Human Services Civil Rights Office, putting the LGBTQ community at risk of losing access to critical and affordable health care.

03.20.17: Trump Administration erases the LGBTQ community from The National Survey of Older Americans Act Participants and the Annual Program Performance Report for Centers for Independent Living, key surveys that are used to help provide care to American seniors, including disability, transportation, and caregiver support needs.

02.22.17—With help of Attorney General Sessions, President Trump rescinded Title IX protections for transgender students in our nation’s schools.

02.02.17: ABC News reports that after previously committing to protecting LGBTQ Americans from discrimination, President Trump and his administration had drafted a “License to Discriminate” executive order which would usher in across-the-board discrimination against the LGBTQ community.

01.27.17: President Donald Trump issued an executive order to indefinitely suspend Syrian refugees from entering the United States. The executive order says the U.S. should not admit those who “engage in acts of bigotry and hatred” or “those who would oppress Americans of any race, gender, or sexual orientation,” but says nothing about admitting LGBT refugees, who have been targeted and killed.

01.20.17: Minutes after Donald Trump was sworn into office, any mention of the LGBTQ community was erased from White House, Department of State, and Department of Labor websites.