PROJECT 2025 REVISITED: LGBTQIA+
Last year, in our P2025 flyer, we outlined the potential impact of the Project 2025 agenda on the lives of people in the LGBTQIA+ community. Now that the Trump Administration appears to be using Project 2025 as its primary road map for American governance, we are taking a look back at our predictions from last year to see how closely they adhere to our current reality.
Did we get it right in 2024?
Our predictions were a little bolder than Trump’s real-world actions in the first 100 days. As of this writing, gay marriages and adoptions — and, by extension, the families of gay couples — remain largely intact. The Trump Administration is, however, slowly and methodically clawing back hard-earned, hard-won rights for members of this historically marginalized community, with specific targets drawn on the backs of transgender and non-binary folks.
Case in point: In the dawning hours of his second administration, Trump decided that one of his most urgent priorities right out of the gate was to sign Executive Order 14168, mandating the recognition of only the traditional two biological sexes by the federal government. The consequences were far-reaching and immediate, wreaking havoc with the ability of transgender and non-binary citizens to secure the passports, visas, REAL IDs and other government-issued IDs they need to travel freely.
Since that time, Trump has:
· Signed an executive order that bans gender-affirming care for anyone under the age of 19, prohibiting access to the medical and surgical care and mental health services trans youth will need to become and remain healthy.
· Issued policy directives requiring that the military branches “separate” its transgender and non-binary members of the military from their posts.
· Petitioned the Supreme Court on an emergency basis to allow his transgender military ban to go forward and take effect while multiple lawsuits against the policy wind their way through the courts.
· Ended the Biden-era DEI government programs that helped promote equity, equal treatment and opportunity, and basic civil and human rights for members of the LGBTQIA+ community.
· Stopped gay and bisexual men and trans women from accessing the HIV preventative medication PrEP through a PEPFAR waiver during the 90-day freeze on foreign aid funding earlier this year.
· Froze federal funding to Maine’s public schools after the state’s governor refused to comply with another of his anti-LGBTQ directives – a ban on transgender athletes in women’s sports.
Taken together, these maneuvers represent a disturbing pattern of bias, discrimination, and hostility that could easily escalate into something much worse — a more comprehensive rollback of rights and freedoms and a permission structure for violence, hate crimes, and terroristic threats against this community.
We will try to keep you posted as things continue to evolve.
