How could Donald Trump target LGBTQ community?

With Donald Trump’s victory on Tuesday, the LGBTQ+ community and their supporters is bracing for policy changes targeting their rights and protections, many concerns are mounting. Project 2025 summary is a policy framework prepared by the Heritage Foundation that they describe as a ‘blueprint for discrimination,’ and these are the core of the fears. Despite Trump’s attempts to distance himself from the project — and its potential for playing a role in LGBTQ+ and social policy — the project is sparking anxiety nationwide.

Among those contributing to the document are figures from Trump’s first administration, including Stephen Miller, whose organization, America First Legal, has backed Project 2025. According to Kevin Roberts, President of the Heritage Foundation, Project 2025 intends to “restore America” to conservative principles.

Key LGBTQ+ Issues in Project 2025

Rolling back several policies that currently protect the rights of LGBTQ+ individuals is Project 2025’s proposal. Some of the most concerning elements include:

1. Weakening Anti-Discrimination Policies: The project seeks to reverse the federally bestowed rights for sexual orientation and gender identity in employment, housing and healthcare.
2. Restricting Transgender Military Service: And the backsliding on transgender people’s right to serve in the military which it advocates for a renewed ban to.
3. Blocking Gender-Affirming Healthcare: It’s a project that could cut transgender people off from critical medical resources, including gender-affirming care.
4. Rolling Back Gender Equity Initiatives: Other things they suggest denying include overturning executive orders that promote gender equity and reproductive rights, which will draw the group even more into the shadows.

What makes one part of the document so concerning is that queer rights are lumped in with other cultural topics that have become heated hot-button issues. It says drag performances and transgender identity are exposing children to “pornography,” and it contends that public librarians who serve up said material should be carved out as sex offenders. It is not explicitly wedded to marriage equality even as references to ‘a biblically based’ family structure lead one to assume that same-sex unions will be judged to be less legitimate.

Trump Target LGBTQ Community Issues

During Trump’s first term, his administration’s policies signaled a shift away from LGBTQ+ protections. Trump:

• Supported employment discrimination based on sexual orientation,
• Banned transgender individuals from military service,
• Rolled back Obama-era protections in healthcare, and
• Opposed the Equality Act, which sought to establish clear anti-discrimination protections.

Already his appointing of conservative judges and these actions, which have already forged a judiciary that is often anti-LGBTQ+ rights, will create the atmosphere in this judgement. Despite what Trump’s said in public about Project 2025, his agenda, dubbed ‘Agenda 47,’ closely resembles some of Project 2025’s anti-LGBTQ+ parts, with the resulting overlap worrisome for allies of LGBTQ+ equality.

The State-Level Echo of Project 2025

Already, Project 2025’s ideology parallels state legislative trends. A combined 500+ anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been proposed in 2024 for the United States, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), with legislation that could restrict student and educator rights, or prohibit individuals from accessing health care. These bills have focused on transgender rights restrictions relative to schools and public spaces. Bans on drag events have led to libraries coming under fire and corporations being forced to withdraw from support of LGBTQ+ inclusion programs.

Constitutional Challenges

The ACLU also says that the Trump administration could use federal law to overrule state and local LGBT protections in the workplace, by letting religious beliefs trump in that case. Project 2025 contains many proposals that are probably liable to legal challenge, precisely because they may violate constitutional protections. But with Republican majorities in Congress, activists may face a tough fight this time if they hope to block these policies at the federal, state and local levels.

Conclusion

The idea of Project 2025 was a policy vision that could change LGBTQ+ rights in the United States for years to come. Trump may have disavowed the plan, but the overlapping potential with his own Agenda 47 only adds to the anxiety within the LGBTQ+ community. As the U.S. approaches Trump’s second term, activists and advocates are gearing up to fight these policies, because the stakes are high for equality and civil rights.