The LGBTQ community is facing a culture in which political leaders are once more labeling them as nutcases and animals after decades of gains in public understanding. Governor Ron DeSantis has attempted to rid Florida schools of textbooks that acknowledge the reality that some individuals aren’t straight or transgender, and Missouri has imposed regulations that restrict access to gender-affirming treatment for trans people of all ages. Governor Greg Abbott of Texas has ordered the Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate the parents of transgender children. Donald Trump has indicated that such initiatives will be nationalized. He doesn’t just want to ensnare, torture, and repress kids as they discover their new identities. He wants to meddle in millions of people’s personal affairs, violating freedoms that any democratic society ought to uphold.
Trump appeared to believe that pretending to have pity for gay folks was good PR during his 2016 campaign. He vowed, “I will do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens.” Therefore, while in office, he oversaw a significant reduction in LGBTQ protections, including the exclusion of sexual orientation and gender from national nondiscrimination laws governing housing, employment, and healthcare. His State Department refused to grant visas to same-sex domestic partners of diplomats, and his Defense Department limited military personnel’s ability to transition and forbade transgender individuals from enlisting. However, Trump continued to put on a Pride-themed charade when running for reelection in 2020.
Now that he is aware that anti-queer demagoguery has energized red-state voters, the politician isn’t even pretending to be tolerant. Trump declared during a speech that “These people are sick, they are deranged” in the midst of an outburst about transgender athletes in June. He remarked, “It’s amazing how strongly people feel about that,” as the audience applauded his mention of “transgender insanity.” “I’m talking about tax cuts, as you can see.” He gave a flimsy clapping pantomime. “But when trans is brought up, somebody loses their minds.” His rallies now frequently feature the speech.
Trump is currently promoting a 10-point “Plan to Protect Children From Left-Wing Gender Insanity.” Its goal is to effectively end trans people’s existence in the eyes of the government, not just to interfere with parents’ rights to shape their children’s health and education in consultation with doctors and teachers. Trump likely urges Congress to create a national definition of sex that states that it is exclusively binary and unchangeable from birth. Additionally, he wants to stop all national “programs that promote the concept of sex and gender change at any age” through administrative action. If implemented, these policies may result in a variety of administrative injustices, such as the impossibility of people changing their sex on their passport. Low-income transgender individuals may not be able to use Medicaid to pay for care that medical professionals have determined is essential to their well-being.
Many of the protections Trump had removed were reinstated by the Biden administration, and the judiciary has so far restrained the most serious facets of the traditional anti-trans agenda. Contrary to claims made by Trump’s Justice Department, the Civil Rights Act protects gay people from workplace discrimination, according to a Supreme Court ruling from 2020. A temporary restraining order was issued by a federal judge to stop Governor Abbott’s Texas-ordered investigations. But if he ran for reelection, Trump would undoubtedly try to nominate more judges who were against gay causes. Additionally, he would resume his initial efforts to advance a view of religious liberty that permits unfair treatment of LGBTQ+ people. His Housing and Urban Development Department put forth a proposal in May 2019 that would have allowed federally funded poor houses to reject transgender people based on their religious liberty. More efforts to restrict the areas and services to which LGBTQ+ people are guaranteed access will be sparked by a 2023 Supreme Court ruling affirming the Christian visual artist’s refusal to work with gay couples.
Trump’s election would merely serve to increase the social effects of such prejudice. He has long advocated for traditional notions of what it means to act and look like a man or woman. The Republican Party’s chief is currently promoting the idea that those who disagree with those ideas deserve punishment through the use of his platform. Hate crimes motivated by gender identity and sexuality have increased, terrifying a community that was never able to take its health for granted, as some Republicans have recently engaged in rhetoric that denigrates queerness, including the accusation that it is pedophilia by another name. People who were merely suspected of nonconformity have been the victims of violence, such as the 59-year-old woman in Indiana who was killed in 2023 by a neighbor who thought she was “a man acting like a woman.”
Everyday deviance from old and inflexible norms could result in scorn or worse if Trump’s efforts to incite gender panic turn out to be a successful national strategy. Additionally, children will grow up in an America that is more risky and oppressive than it has ever been.
This article is published under the title “Trump Will Stoke a Gender Panic” in the January/February 2024 display book.
