It’s official: Trump has won the 2024 presidential election. What does this mean for the LGBTQ+ community in the USA? Here’s Brig’s rundown on Trump’s plans for the future of LGBTQ+ people and communities.
Warning: It doesn’t look good.
The Trump administration has, for a long time, put effort into erasing protections for LGBTQ people – with emphasis on removing rights for transgender people.
Project 2025, an infamous proposed manifesto which reflects and influences the Trump administration despite Trump denying involvement, outlines much of the following information.
Removing Anti-LGBTQ+ Discrimination Protection
Trump has promised that if reelected, he will take back federal policies which prevent discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. His administration will assert that federal civil rights laws will not cover anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) predicts that the Trump administration will use federal law – including laws meant to safeguard civil rights – to override vital state-level protections for transgender students. They will also force state and local governments, as well as private organizations, to allow discrimination.
Without these protections from discrimination, housing, healthcare, education, employment, and federal government programmes can legally discriminate against anyone LGBTQ+ – refusing people homes, jobs, and even medical procedures.
Discrimination is life-threatening. A second Trump administration would make life indefinitely harder for LGBTQ+ Americans. People across all LGBTQ+ communities will suffer at the hands of the Trump administration. People will face the hand of hatred as it pulls their lives out from under their feet.
Removing Access to Gender-Affirming Medical Care
The proposed policies will block gender-affirming medical care for transgender people who are enrolled in federal healthcare programmes (e.g., Medicare). Gender-affirming treatments such as hormone therapy, surgery, voice therapy, and psychological support will become inaccessible. These can be life-saving treatments – Trump’s proposed restrictions are inhumane and will result in lost lives.
This cruel and heartless discrimination will result in the removal of transgender people from public life by using federal laws to essentially criminalise people outside of the gender binary. Transgender people will lose the right to live without fear.
Serving in the Armed Forces
Transgender people will not be able to serve in the armed forces, once again. The Biden administration reversed this when in power, but the USA will be rescinding back to a dark past under Trump.
The Trump administration, under details outlined in Project 2025, would expel transgender servicemen and women as well as those living with HIV from serving in the armed forces in a brutal act of discrimination.
LGBTQ+ Education Barriers Introduced
Project 2025 outlines the erasure of LGBTQ+ inclusive curriculums and policies. The manifesto claims that “critical race theory and gender ideology” are “poisoning and indoctrinating children with leftist ideologies”.
Without education on LGBTQ+ topics, young people will grow up in a confusing world that doesn’t match them. Young people will start feeling “other”. They will feel out of place, with no community, no education on safe LGBTQ+ sex, and no access to gender-affirming healthcare. The mental health of LGBTQ+ youth will plummet. Suicide rates will heartbreakingly rise.
LGBTQ+ people will always exist, whether the Trump administration erases them or not. All that this is doing is making society inhospitable, cruel, and uninformed. It is inhumane and disgusting to erase the history, health, and well-being of a whole community that will always, always exist.
Action Against Discrimination Under the Trump Administration
The ACLU has said that they will “use the courts to affirm that LGBTQ people are protected from discrimination under federal law, to invalidate policies mandating discrimination across the federal government, and to shut down Trump’s expected efforts to weaponize the Constitution and federal laws to require discrimination against LGBTQ people by state and local governments and private entities.
“The ACLU will aggressively lobby members of Congress who support the transgender community to use the appropriations process, in particular, to hinder Trump’s ability to mandate anti-trans discrimination and weaponize federal law against LGBTQ rights.”
Trump Denies Project 2025
Trump claims that he knows nothing of Project 2025, and Project 2025 claims to not relate to any campaign. However, Democrats have frequently drawn links between Project 2025 and Trump – only time will tell what will come true.
You can view a full list of Trump’s attacks on LGBTQ+ people during his last run as president here.
You can read more on Brig’s coverage of Trump’s election win here.
Do you know of any other impacts on the LGBTQ+ community in the USA under the Trump Administration that we may have missed in this article? Comment below so we can keep our information accurate and reflective of potential future events.
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