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From 2017 to 2021, the Donald Trump-Mike Pence administration represented one of the greatest threats that LGBTQ+ people have faced in recent history. In his first four years in office, Trump enacted multitudinous decisions, and spewed hatred left and right, in ways that made life materially worse for marginalized communities all over the country, with LGBTQ+ people being no exception — and now, Republicans have chosen Trump to lead the country for another four years.
Between his efforts against life-saving legislation like the Affordable Care Act, to his appointments of homophobic and transphobic judges, Trump was a constant source of danger for queer people around the world even after leaving office. There are few issues impacting LGBTQ+ people that he cannot, and has not, made worse; over the course of the Biden administration, Trump zeroed in on trans rights as a new favorite punching bag, and promises to enact numerous policies that would harm trans youth and adults alike for years to come.
Organizations like the Log Cabin Republicans and the Republican National Committee have long attempted to paint Trump as an LGBTQ+ ally, before and after his first term. But to say that Trump is anything other than an enemy of LGBTQ+ people requires an absurd distortion of the facts and blithe ignorance of his actual record.
What follows is only a small sampling of Trump’s most egregious attacks on LGBTQ+ rights and dignity over the past decade. There are far, far more where these came from — and sadly, only time will tell how many more lie in store for us.
Opposing the Equality Act
One of the most clear-cut ways the first Trump administration expressed hostility toward queer people was through opposition to the Equality Act — still-pending legislation that would ensure that existing civil rights protections cover sexual orientation and gender identity in the way that they already do for race, disability, veteran status, and more.
The Equality Act is supported by a broad coalition of dozens of groups, including civil rights organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch, businesses like Apple, Google, and Netflix, religious groups like The United Church of Christ, and many more. Nevertheless, one senior White House official said at the time that protecting queer Americans would “undermine parental and conscience rights.” Calling it a “poison pill,” spokesperson Judd Deere said that Trump opposed discrimination, but would not sign the bill. If Trump had specific objections to the bill, they were not made apparent.
