ATLANTA — Donald Trump has emphasized his strong stance against transgender rights as a crucial component of his campaign leading up to Election Day. He employs derogatory language and misleading claims to depict a small segment of the American population as a menace to national integrity.
As the former president and Republican nominee, Trump’s campaign, alongside related political action committees, has allocated substantial financial resources toward advertisements that criticize Democratic nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris for her previous advocacy for transgender rights.
His speeches at rallies now include a parody video that ridicules transgender individuals and their role within the U.S. military. This montage features clips from the classic Vietnam War film “Full Metal Jacket” and frequently inspires boos from the audience, as do Trump’s inaccurate assertions about female athletes, coupled with his derogatory imitation of what he claims is a transgender woman lifting weights.
“We will get transgender insanity the hell out of our schools, and we will keep men out of women’s sports,” Trump declared at his recent rally at Madison Square Garden, inciting enthusiastic cheers from a crowd exceeding 20,000 people.
Though Trump’s rhetoric about immigration often overshadows his attacks on LGBTQ communities, his statements regarding transgender rights have intensified in these final campaign days. His messaging aims to rally his core supporters while potentially attracting moderate voters who might diverge from him on other issues. This is part of a broader strategy where Trump promotes his own interpretation of masculinity, referring repeatedly to CNN anchor Anderson Cooper—who is openly gay—using a woman’s name, “Allison Cooper.”
In contrast, Harris has generally refrained from responding to Trump’s accusations but has countered his portrayal of her policies, highlighting that federal provisions granting U.S. service members access to gender-affirming medical care and transgender surgeries were already established during Trump’s presidency.
“I will follow the law,” Harris stated in a Fox News interview on October 17. “And it’s a law that Donald Trump actually followed. You’re probably familiar with now. It’s a public report that under Donald Trump’s administration, these surgeries were available on a medical necessity basis, to people in the federal prison system.”
In a recent appearance on “The Breakfast Club” podcast, she pointed out that Trump was “living in a glass house” while making his criticisms. Harris contrasted the number of individuals involved, noting that only two U.S. service members sought transgender surgery, while millions could potentially lose their health insurance if Trump’s party succeeds in revoking the Affordable Care Act.
Polls indicate a split nation concerning transgender rights. A Gallup poll from May reveals that approximately half of Americans, 51%, consider changing one’s gender morally unacceptable. Additionally, about 70% of Americans believe transgender athletes should only compete on teams aligned with their birth gender, according to a 2023 Gallup survey. Nevertheless, around 60% oppose legislation banning treatments and medical procedures that assist transgender individuals in aligning with their gender identity, as per the May survey, while about one-third support such prohibitions.
Advocates for civil rights express significant concerns over the possibility of a second Trump term for LGBTQ rights, asserting that his campaign rhetoric already undermines the safety of transgender individuals, irrespective of the election’s outcome. Trump has pledged to focus on transgender issues if he wins, proposing legislation to declare that there are “only two genders” and to forbid hormonal or surgical interventions for transgender minors nationwide.
Sarah Kate Ellis, president of the LGBTQ advocacy organization GLAAD, criticized Trump’s approach, emphasizing that it targets “vulnerable people” who comprise approximately 1% of the population and who already face marginalization in society.
“Why are we debating trans people’s medical care? Because there’s a lack of understanding, and there’s a lack of humanizing about who trans people are,” Ellis remarked. “It’s not easy to be transgendered, to wake up every day in a body that might not fit who you are, and instead of having empathy, they’re met with hostility. That’s the culture Trump is creating.”
Activist Charlotte Clymer voiced her frustrations on the social media platform X, stating: “It really sucks to watch any sports event as a trans person right now because of the Trump commercials, and I just need everyone to know that: yes, we do see the ads, and it’s demoralizing to know this entire subset of people sees us as subhuman.”
Trump’s campaign has reportedly spent around $35 million since September 1 airing three advertisements based on comments Harris made in 2019 during the Democratic primary. These ads feature Harris supporting federal policies that allow inmates access to medical care, including gender-affirming hormone therapies and surgeries.
One advertisement states, “It sounds insane because it is insane,” and, as of Thursday, had been broadcast nearly 28,000 times across battleground states and national networks. The ad implies that Harris’s agenda prioritizes non-binary pronouns through the phrase, “Kamala’s agenda is ‘they-them,’ not you.”
During her 2019 run for the presidency, Harris stated in an ACLU questionnaire that she supported necessary medical services for gender transition for federal prisoners. As California’s attorney general, she helped expand access to such care for state inmates. However, she accurately points out that comparable federal policies existed during Trump’s presidency for both immigrant detainees and federal prisoners.
At his rallies, Trump often addresses LGBTQ matters with broad statements and emotional appeals, consistently criticizing U.S. military leaders for being “woke,” attributing blame to both Harris and President Joe Biden.
The spoof video shown at Trump’s rallies juxtaposes military training footage—complete with yelling drill sergeants—and scenes that allegedly depict LGBTQ military personnel exhibiting exaggerated feminine traits. These latter visuals, according to the video, illustrate the state of the military under the Biden and Harris administration.
As Trump prepares to take the stage, various speakers lay the groundwork for his remarks regarding transgender issues.
Vivek Ramaswamy, a former Republican presidential candidate, addressed attendees at Madison Square Garden by claiming, “We’re in the middle of a national identity crisis. Faith in God, patriotism, hard work, family—these things have disappeared only to be replaced by ‘wokeism’ and transgenderism” and other ideologies. He urged the audience to fill the void with their own vision of purpose and meaning for the nation.
