Donald Trump targets trans people as he announces 2024 Presidential bid
Trump's presidency was disastrous for the LGBTQ community.
Former President Donald Trump has announced that he intends to run in the 2024 presidential election and is already targeting trans people.
In an hour-long speech on Tuesday (15 November) Trump stated he would “make America great and glorious again.”
As part of his speech, Trump took aim at trans people competing in sports, during Trans Awareness Week. “We will not let men as an example… participate in women’s sports,” he said during the speech in Mar-a-Lago.
“My people tell me ‘Sir, that’s politically incorrect to say’, I said, ‘that’s okay, I’ll say it anyway if you don’t mind.’… We’ve had tremendous problems and it’s very unfair to women,” the 76-year-old added.
“The decline of America is being forced upon us by Biden and the radical left… this is not a decline we must accept. Under our leadership, we were a great and glorious nation – something you haven’t heard for quite a long period of time.”
The Trump administration, which lasted between 2016 and 2020, was particularly devastating for the LGBTQ+ community.
LGBTQ healthcare protections were stripped away, but have since been restored by the United States Government under Joe Biden.
Trump also announced a ban on trans people serving in the US military in 2017 – also reversed under Biden – and he appointed anti-LGBTQ+ judges to the Supreme Court.
In 2017, Trump’s Housing and Urban Development Department withdrew critical data collection and implementation guidelines for a homelessness prevention initiative targeting LGBTQ+ youth.
The Human Rights Campaign’s ‘Trump’s Timeline of Hate’ documents an extensive chronology of the former President’s harmful declarations and legislation that impacted the LGBTQ+ community, and others, attempting to erase the community from programs and protections.
His hopes for Presidency, despite being impeached twice, will be heavily disputed as it’s expected that Florida Governor, Ron DeSantis, is believed to announce his bid for the 2024 Republican ticket in the near future.
DeSantis won a large majority in the recent midterm elections and has been a vociferous supporter of the ‘Don’t Say Gay, Don’t Say Trans’ bill that prevents discussions of LGBTQ topics in schools.
Since it was introduced and implemented earlier this year, other states have begun replicating it at home.