GLAAD has documented the anti-LGBTQ history of Donald Trump, including his policies and promises to overhaul the United States educational system. The full anti-LGBTQ record is available on GLAAD’s Trump Accountability Tracker. Bullying and anti-LGBTQ policies in education are among the motivators for LGBTQ voters.
Trump’s education record includes:
ending Obama-era protections allowing transgender students in public schools to choose bathrooms that align with their gender identity.
making frequent inflammatory remarks about public schools that push “critical race theory, transgender insanity, and other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content on our children.” Speaking out about his Agenda 47 plan, Trump said: “No serious country should be telling its children that they were born with the wrong gender—a concept that was never heard of in all of human history—nobody’s ever heard of this, what’s happening today. It was all when the radical left invented it just a few years ago.”
forming The 1776 Commission to whitewash history in rebuke of teaching about “systemic racism, critical race theory, and deeper examinations of how slavery has affected American society.” President Biden issued an executive order to rescind the commission.
selecting Betsy DeVos as the Secretary of Education. DeVos’ anti-LGBTQ record includes banning transgender bathroom access, rolling back Obama administration-era Title IX guidelines and, on a personal level, providing financial support to anti-LGBTQ organizations. DeVos’ father, Edgar Prince, is one of the founders of the anti-LGBTQ Family Research Council.
Trump’s Supreme Court nominees also have a record of anti-LGBTQ rulings:
curtailing federal oversight of schools by rejecting the “Chevron deference,” a standard which allowed federal agencies to provide clarification on ambiguous laws. Going forward, it may prove difficult for the U.S. Department of Education to intervene and protect LGBTQ students.
striking down President Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan. According to a study by The Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law, “LGBTQ adults are more likely to have federal student loans.”
Trump has recommitted to overhauling the United States educational system:
Trump promised to dismantle the Department of Education, sending “all education and education work and needs back to the states.”
Trump vowed to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts in higher education.
Trump announced that, “on day one” he would reverse protections for transgender students granted as part of President Biden’s Title IX updates (including the right to use bathrooms that align with students’ gender identities), which could lead to more “Don’t Say LGBTQ” copycat laws. Targeting vulnerable students makes them and the entire school community less safe.
Trump threatened to end Federal funding for schools that provide supportive learning environments for transgender kids and that teach key LGBTQ subjects, as well as critical race theory. Stripping funding makes all communities less prosperous.
Trump said that parents should be given the right to elect and fire school principals to “take schools back from ‘radical Marxist maniacs.’” In addition, he “called for merit pay for teachers and the abolition of teacher tenure.”
Trump has used his platform to target transgender athletes:
Trump has left a lengthy trail of verbal attacks about transgender athletes, from bullying them during rallies, to calling them “sick” and “deranged.” He frequently uses charged language to diminish and demean transgender people, and threaten supportive education environments; phrases such as “radical civics” and “transgender insanity.”
Trump claimed that, if reelected, he would prevent transgender women nationwide from participating in women’s sports. He also mocked and misgendered a transgender athlete Lia Thomas, as well as an unidentified weightlifter.
Trump, his connection to Moms for Liberty, and book bans:
Designated an “extremist group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center, Moms for Liberty (M4L) focuses on advocacy, which “has included calls for book bans, classroom censorship, and bans on teaching about slavery, race, racism and LGBTQ people and history.”
According to PEN America, M4L is behind 170 of the 294 “advocacy-led book bans” in schools nationwide during the 2022-23 school year (out of 1,477 recorded book bans).
Although M4L claims they will not endorse any 2024 presidential candidate, they have increased activity surrounding November’s election and in anti-LGBTQ actions in alignment with Trump’s agenda:
M4L invited former President Trump to speak at their 2023 annual conference in Philadelphia. “Moms for Liberty is no hate group,” he said. “You are joyful warriors, you are fierce, fierce patriots. You’re not a threat to America.” Trump also promised to “take historic action to defeat the toxic poison of gender ideology, to restore the timeless truth that God created two genders: male and female.”
M4L and several Republican-led states sued the Biden administration over Title IX protections for transgender and nonbinary students. A federal judge ruled in their favor, halting the new rule from taking effect.
M4L announced they would spend over $3 million on a swing-state advertising blitz. They hope to wake “up and activate” the 20% of their membership who have not registered to vote.
Trump’s administration in his one-term presidency was filled with activists from the anti-LGBTQ national organization Heritage Foundation. Heritage and others have created “Project 2025”, which aims to:
close the Department of Education.disallow students using names or pronouns that don’t match the sex on their birth certificate.promote an extremely restrictive view of gender and racial identities in education, remove LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum and policies while compelling adherence to strict definitions of gender that exclude transgender students and staff. Remove “critical race theory and gender ideology” from public schools because they claim, without basis, that it is “poisoning and indoctrinating children with leftist ideologies” and that there is a “devastating effect” on children, especially girls.
eliminate avenues of support for LGBTQ (and all) students with student loans by “rolling back the Biden administration’s new income-driven repayment plan” (SAVE), and “ending the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.”
GLAAD’s Voter Poll shows:
53% of both registered and likely 2024 voters say they would oppose “a political candidate [who] speaks frequently about restricting access to health care and participation in sports for transgender youth.”
Voters overwhelmingly believe that decisions about health care and mental health services for transgender youth should be made by parents: 81% of likely 2024 voters, 83% of swing voters, and 73% of Trump voters agree.
All categories overwhelmingly agree that “Republicans should stop focusing on restricting women’s rights and banning medical care for transgender youth and instead focus on addressing inflation, job creation, and healthcare costs.” 94% of LGBTQ voters, 76% of registered voters, 76% of likely 2024 voters, and 82% of swing voters agree.
