Trump Promises Rollback On Trans Rights: Here's What He's Said

Topline

Former President Donald Trump on Friday said he would undo a new Biden administration policy that will offer protections for transgender students under the Title IX federal civil rights law—his latest promise to restrict LGBTQ rights if elected to a second term.

Key Facts

Trump said on “day one” he would reverse the Biden administration’s expansion of Title IX that will prohibit federally funded schools from preventing transgender students from using bathrooms, locker rooms and pronouns that align with their gender identities.

Trump told a crowd in Iowa in March he would sign an executive order to “cut federal funding” for schools pushing “critical race theory, transgender insanity, and other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content on our children.”

In January, he released a video detailing a range of policies targeting gender-affirming care for minors, including pressing Congress to approve a federal ban and several measures to restrict federal funding when it came to trans issues.

Trump said he would block doctors who provide gender-affirming care from Medicare and Medicaid, forbid federal agencies from actions to “promote the concept of sex and gender transition at any age,” and task the Justice Department with investigating the medical industry to see if they “deliberately covered up horrific long-term side effects of sex transitions in order to get rich.”

In the video, Trump laid out additional plans for extending the restrictions to schools, promising “severe consequences,” including potential civil rights violations, for educators who “suggest to a child they could be trapped in the wrong body.”

In 2022 Trump told a crowd in Texas he would ban transgender individuals from competing in women’s sports, and attacked transgender swimmer Lia Thomas, weeks after her hotly debated record-breaking swim meet in Ohio while she was competing on the University of Pennsylvania swim team.

Tangent

Trump and Republicans attacked President Joe Biden for recognizing Transgender Day of Visibility, which coincidentally fell on March 31 this year, the same day as Easter Sunday. Trump’s campaign falsely claimed that Biden “chose” Easter to mark the advocacy day, even though it’s fallen on March 31 since 2009 and the Biden administration has recognized the day every year of his presidency.

Crucial Quote

“The left-wing gender insanity being pushed at our children is an act of child abuse. Very simple. Here’s my plan to stop the chemical, physical and emotional mutilation of our youth,” Trump said in the January video.

What To Watch For

The Biden administration’s expansion of Title IX will take effect on Aug. 1. More than 20 Republican-led states are suing the administration to block the law.

Surprising Fact

Trump’s daughter, Tiffany Trump, defended her father’s relationship with the LGBTQ community at a “Trump Pride” event in Florida in 2020, arguing that “prior to politics, he supported gays, lesbians, the LGBQIA+ community,” omitting the T in the acronym that stands for “transgender.” Trump called himself a “real friend” of the gay community in 2016. More recently, he hosted a gathering of the conservative LGBTQ organization, Log Cabin Republicans, at Mar-A-Lago in December 2022, where he declared “we’re fighting for the gay community, and we are . . . fighting hard,” Politico reported. Trump told “60 Minutes” in 2016 he was “fine” with same-sex marriage, despite previously suggesting he would appoint Supreme Court judges who would support reversing its legalization. His administration also launched a global campaign to decriminalize homosexuality in countries where it is illegal.

Key Background

Trump’s attacks on transgender rights and healthcare date back to his first days in the White House, when he removed virtually all mentions of LGBTQ people from federal websites. He subsequently enacted a string of regulations to scale back protections for transgender individuals in anti-discrimination laws across the education, housing, employment and health care sectors, filed legal briefings in opposition of LGBTQ rights in numerous court cases and banned transgender people from serving in the military (a policy Biden has since reversed).