Today, GLAAD launched a national ad campaign focused on right-wing think tank the Heritage Foundation’s “Project 2025,” a transition plan and playbook calling for radical changes to the U.S. government.
One of the first ads to depict the potential effects of Project 2025, GLAAD’s “The Pledge” is set in a public school classroom in September 2025 and features a federal government representative overseeing a teacher who is leading her young students while they recite a revised Pledge of Allegiance, reflective of the values espoused in the more than 900-page Project 2025 plan:
“I pledge allegiance to the flag and the President of the United States of America, and to the biblical values for which our country stands, and the natural order of man and woman under God, loyal to the President at all times…”
“The Pledge” is running this week on MSNBC, timed with the start of the political party convention season. It will again air during MSNBC ‘Morning Joe’ on Friday, July 19 and is also currently running nationally on digital channels.
Project 2025 aims to gut protections for the LGBTQ community, which its organizers believe exists in opposition to the “traditional American family” and its Christian nationalist underpinnings. The Project would prioritize families “comprised of a married mother, father, and their children,” and would eliminate any federal policies that promote LGBTQ equality or that assist single mothers. The Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) reports that the project claims falsely that, “Only heterosexual, two-parent families are safe for children, and that, ‘All other family forms involve higher levels of instability (the average length of same-sex marriages is half that of heterosexual marriages); financial stress or poverty; and poor behavioral, psychological, or educational outcomes.’ (Their data on the length of marriages is false).”
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Other egregious and dangerous Project 2025 proposals include:
Stripping away non-discrimination protections
Closing the Department of Education
Eliminating transgender health care in Medicare and Medicaid
Calling for a ban on abortion pills and criminally prosecuting providers.
Eradicating federal funding for DEI programs
Replacing the Department of Homeland Security with a 100,000-worker-strong immigration department, militarization of the border and an end to refugee programs
On Project 2025, GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis stated: “Project 2025 is an assault on every American. It would create an America where the freedoms that are hallmark to our Democracy are replaced with authoritarianism and the progress we have made for LGBTQ people, people of color, women, and other marginalized communities is stripped away. From ending marriage equality and abortion access to non-discrimination laws, Project 2025 is a roadmap to a weaker America where liberty and justice are not granted to all Americans. But it doesn’t stop there — it would harm every American by giving tax breaks to corporations while raising taxes on the middle class, including a new tax on our health insurance; allowing employers to eliminate overtime pay; and banning Medicare from negotiating drug prices. It even calls for government employees who are not loyal to the President to be fired from their jobs. Shame on us if we don’t do everything we can to stop this dangerous plan to turn the clock back.”
GLAAD previously released an analysis of Project 2025 and its harmful impact on LGBTQ people, women, and other Americans. Read more here.
Visit stopproject25.com to learn more about this influential new campaign, as well as information the origin and makers of Project 2025, other marginalized groups that are under threat by proposed Project 25 policies, and a detailed breakdown of Project 2025 lies versus facts.
