Welcome to our weekly “Trumptastrophe” series that serves to remind us of the destructive policies, decisions, and actions we encountered during the Trump presidency and the threats that he and others in the MAGA movement still pose – and to keep those moments clear in our memory as we fight to defeat Republican extremists during the upcoming elections.
This week’s Trumptastrophe focuses on former President Trump’s attacks on the LGBTQ community:
On July 26, 2017, the Trump Justice Department filed a brief in the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals arguing that the 1964 Civil Rights Act does not protect people against job discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. On the very same day, Trump announced via Twitter that his administration would “not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. military.”
The anti-equality one-two punch made it clear that the ridiculous campaign claims by some of Trump’s allies that he would be the most pro-gay president in history were utterly false. The administration sacrificed the rights of LGBTQ people, and the careers of trans servicemembers, in order to satisfy the demands of the religious-right base whose turnout and overwhelming support put Trump into the White House.
The military ban announcement also demonstrated Trump’s reckless habit of making and announcing policies by tweet, catching both military and congressional leaders off-guard. Sen. John McCain, well known as a veteran and survivor of brutal treatment as a prisoner of war, criticized the discriminatory policy, saying, “Any American who meets current medical and readiness standards should be allowed to continue serving. There is no reason to force service members who are able to fight, train and deploy to leave the military — regardless of their gender identity.”
The Justice Department amicus brief arguing against anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ workers reversed positions taken by the Justice Department under President Barack Obama and by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The case in question made it to the Supreme Court in 2019, when the Trump administration again filed a brief arguing that federal civil rights law does not protect gay people from discrimination on the job.
At the end of Trump’s first year, Right Wing Watch took stock of his “terrible anti-LGBTQ first year”:
Many LGBTQ people have been or will be harmed by broad-based Trump-GOP policies, like the tax bill and its assault on the Affordable Care Act, that also affect millions of non-LGBTQ Americans. But LGBTQ Americans are also facing very focused attacks from the Trump administration. That’s why NBC called Trump’s first 100 days “fear-inducing” for LGBTQ Americans. And by mid-year, German Lopez at Vox was calling Trump’s campaign promises to the LGBTQ community “total bullshit” and Luke Darby at GQ was calling the administration “a disaster for LGBT Americans.” The Human Rights Campaign’s Sarah McBride went even further, writing in Cosmopolitan that the Trump administration has “revealed itself to be the ugliest, most explicitly anti-LGBTQ presidency in U.S. history.” Journalist Michelangelo Signorile seconded that emotion in September.
Trump also appointed religious-right activist Roger Severino, who a dozen U.S. senators described as having “a long history of making bigoted statements toward lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people,” as head of the Office of Civil Rights at the Department of Health and Human Services.
When the gay conservative Trump sycophants at the Log Cabin Republicans—who endorsed Trump for reelection in 2020—promoted a video claiming that Donald Trump was “the most pro-gay president in American history”— The Washington Post’s fact-checker dubbed it an “absurd claim” and gave it four Pinocchios.
The administration’s anti-equality moves were part of a pattern of reversing and rolling back civil and human rights protections that began as soon as Trump was sworn in and continued throughout his administration, which has been documented by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.
A second Trump administration would be no different, based on the anti-equality and anti-civil-rights plans that have been put in place by the Trump aides and allies who wrote the Project 2025 playbook. In contrast to the Trump administration’s actions, the Obama-Biden and Biden-Harris administrations made the protection of LGBTQ human rights a priority both domestically and internationally.
These are just some of the reasons we need YOU in this fight. So, find your favorite way to unwind after reading through this week’s recap, and then make a plan for how you will fight back this week, this month, this election cycle.
For members who are interested in sharing the weekly Trumptastrophe series, you can find all previous editions on our website! This post will be published by Thursday so you can share with your friends and family and remind them of the importance of ensuring that Trump is defeated again this November.
