Trump's second-term agenda on LGBTQ issues alarms civil rights groups

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

58% : But it was an easy sell, Nance recalled of her June 2023 conversation, and Trump soon signed the pledge.
58% : On the trail a few days later, Trump marveled aloud at the crowd's standing ovation for his promise to crack down on "transgender insanity.""It's amazing how strongly people feel about that.
57% : "Who would have thought?"The former president, who has shifted his position over the years on LGBTQ issues, is planning to lead the GOP charge on gender identity if he returns to the White House, according to his campaign and interviews with allies, testing the legal limits of federal action as the Supreme Court also takes up the issue.
50% : Her Christian nonprofit, Concerned Women for America, wanted Trump to pledge in writing that a person's "gender identity" doesn't "overrule their sex," and that if he becomes president again, "all federal agencies will be directed to uphold this fact in every policy and program at home and abroad.
50% : "They've ruled, and we live with the decision," Trump said.
49% : "Politicians should prioritize getting the country back on track, not making life more difficult for trans Americans," said Ash Orr, a spokesperson for the National Center for Transgender Equality.
47% : Polls show Americans support same-sex marriage by big margins, and a Washington Post-KFF poll last year found that large majorities support laws prohibiting discrimination against transgender people in workplaces, education, the military and other settings.
46% : Some of Trump's proposals on gender identity - such as a bill banning practices he refers to as "child sexual mutilation" - would require a supportive Congress.
46% : Severino argues for reversing the Biden administration's assertion that the Affordable Care Act bans federally-supported health programs from discriminating based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
44% : Republicans who were on the defensive for years on same-sex marriage have turned much of their focus to gender transition and found public support for some restrictions.
44% : But other Trump supporters have resisted the growing acceptance of same-sex marriage.
40% : Last month at a Washington, D.C., summit for the activist group Moms for Liberty, Trump misrepresented the process of gender transition for minors, falsely suggesting schools rather than parents consent to a child's medical "operation."Asked what he could do as president to address the rising number of children identifying as transgender, Trump said: "Well, you can do everything.
39% : "The debate between conservative constitutionalists and the Biden administration is how Bostock is applied, and the Biden administration has taken Bostock and applied it to everything they could get their hands on," said Roger Severino, who led the Office of Civil Rights in the Health and Human Services Department under Trump.
38% : Asked about that idea, Moran echoed Trump and his advisers' distancing from Project 2025.
35% : And over the summer, Trump backed an overhaul of the Republican Party platform that removed long-standing opposition to the Supreme Court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage.
35% : For example, Trump has promised to reinstate his first administration's ban on transgender people serving openly in the military.
35% : In Trump's first term, multiple federal agencies quietly removed references to sexual orientation from anti-discrimination guidelines, and the administration argued in court against interpreting discrimination law to cover sexual orientation.
29% : "Trump criticized the Supreme Court's Obergefell ruling legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide during the GOP primary in 2016, then said shortly after winning the election that he was "fine" with it.
27% : Asked how Trump's administration would approach LGBTQ issues if reelected, Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement that Trump's "second term agenda will create a safer and more prosperous America for ALL Americans, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, race, religion, or creed!"Trump regularly portrays transgender people as a threat to women in his campaign speeches, mocking their participation in women's sports before laughing crowds.
26% : He says he wants to kick providers out of Medicare and Medicaid for offering gender transition care to minors, such as hormone therapy and surgery; pull federal funding from schools if officials suggest a child "could be trapped in the wrong body"; and purge anything in the federal government deemed to promote transgender identity.
26% : The Supreme Court said in June that it would review one such law in Tennessee, which would mark the justices' first chance to weigh whether the restrictions are constitutional.Ben Carson, who served as Housing Secretary under Trump, said in an interview that he and Trump have talked about what they see as the problem of gender transition care for minors.
25% : But the first Trump administration fought efforts to extend anti-discrimination laws to cover sexual orientation, and social conservatives are eager for Trump to pick up where he left off.
24% : Still, the 2022 Supreme Court ruling striking down the long-standing right to abortion - and conservative Justice Clarence Thomas's suggestion at the same time that gay rights cases need reexamining - has made the LGBTQ community nervous that other precedents could fall, especially if Trump makes more judicial appointments.Charles Moran, the president of the Log Cabin Republicans - a group for LGBTQ conservatives and their allies - said Trump has been supportive, praised his first administration's efforts to decriminalize homosexuality internationally and noted that Trump had the first Pride Coalition in GOP presidential campaign history.
23% : The emerging second plans underscore a shift in the politics of LGBTQ issues since 2016, when Trump suggested that North Carolina's restrictions on transgender people's restroom use were unnecessary and said the trans celebrity Caitlyn Jenner could use any toilet she wanted at Trump Tower.
22% : Trump is also expected to try to appoint more conservative judges on the federal bench who could influence future landmark decisions on LGBTQ issues.
21% : In the summer of 2020, Trump appeared to publicly accept a 6-3 Supreme Court ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County, written by Trump appointee Neil M. Gorsuch, that concluded a federal ban on sex discrimination in employment extends to bias against gay and transgender people.
17% : Some prominent social conservative allies of Trump concede the tides have turned against them on same-sex marriage, which once dominated the political fight over LGBTQ rights.
11% : (Trump criticized Project 2025 over the summer as Democrats increasingly attacked it.)

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