ATLANTA – Donald Trump made his opposition to transgender rights the centerpiece of his closing argument before Election Day, using derogatory language and distortions to paint an extremely narrow segment of the US population as a threat to national identity.
The former president and Republican candidate campaign and coordinated political action committees have spent tens of millions of dollars on ads attacking the Democratic nominee and vice president. Kamala Harris for his previous statements in support of transgender rights.
His rally speeches now include a fake video mocking trans people and their place in the US military. assembly, interspersed with clips The Vietnam War movie “Full Metal Jacket” is usually as loud as it is at Trump rallies. false claims about female athletes and his sarcastic impression According to her, she is a trans woman who lifts weights.
“We will remove transgender insanity from our schools and remove men from women’s sports,” Trump said. Madison Square Garden rallyIt drew approving roars from the crowd of more than 20,000.
His running mate, JD Vance, argued Thursday that “middle-class or upper-middle-class” white teenagers may identify as transgender to get into elite universities more easily. In doing so, Vance was referring to conservative anger at affirmative action and other programs aimed at historically disenfranchised groups.
“Is there a dynamic where if you’re trans, there’s a way to reject your white privilege?” Vance said while speaking with podcaster Joe Rogan. “It’s the only social cue, the only thing that exists in a hyper-awakened mindset, is to be gender non-binary.”
Although often overshadowed by his emphasis on immigrants, Trump’s broadsides against LGBTQ people have appeared more frequent and egregious in the final days of the campaign, aiming to unsettle both his core supporters and more moderate voters who may not connect with Trump on other issues. . issues. It’s part of an overall campaign in which Trump promotes his own brand of hyper-masculinity. refers several times CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, who is gay, goes by the female name “Allison Cooper.”
Harris has largely ignored Trump’s attacks, but declined to characterize his positions, noting that federal policies that give U.S. service members access to gender-affirming medical care and transgender surgeries have been in place during Trump’s presidency.
“I’m going to follow the law,” Harris said in an October 17 interview with Fox News. “And that’s the law that Donald Trump is actually following. You are probably familiar by now. It is a public report that under the administration of Donald Trump, these surgeries have become available to people in the federal prison system on the basis of medical necessity.”
On The Breakfast Club podcast earlier this week, he added that he “lives in a glass house” with Trump’s attacks. He compared the number of people involved: He said two U.S. servicemen applied for transgender surgery, and millions could be denied health insurance if Trump and Republicans succeed in their efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
Polls suggest voters divided on transgender rights. Nearly half of Americans, 51%, say it is morally wrong to change gender. Gallup poll from May. About 7 in 10 Americans say transgender athletes should only be allowed to compete on sports teams that match their gender. 2023 Gallup poll. However, nearly 6 in 10 Americans oppose laws that would ban treatments and medical procedures that help transgender people conform to their gender identity. Gallup poll from May. About a third are in favor of such bans.
Civil rights advocates, meanwhile, are concerned about what a second Trump administration will mean for LGBTQ rights, saying his campaign messages already threaten the safety of transgender people, regardless of who prevails.
There is Trump promised to target if transgender people are chosen. He said he would ask Congress to pass a bill declaring there are “only two sexes” and ban hormonal or surgical intervention for transgender minors in all 50 states.
Sarah Kate Ellis, president of LGBTQ advocacy group GLAAD, said Trump’s approach attacks “vulnerable people,” who make up about 1% of the population and are already marginalized by much of society.
“Why are we debating trans health care? Because there’s a misunderstanding and there’s no humanization of who trans people are,” Ellis said. “It’s not easy being transgender, waking up every day in a body that doesn’t match who you are, and instead of being shown empathy, they’re met with hostility. This is the culture created by Trump.”
Writer and activist Charlotte Clymer added on social media platform X: “Really…watching any sporting event as a trans person because of Trump’s ads is disgusting and I just want everyone to know: yes, we do it. look at the ads and it’s disheartening to know that a whole subset of people see us as subhuman.”
Indeed, the Trump campaign has spent nearly $35 million since September 1 running three ads based on Harris’ 2019 statements as the 2020 Democratic presidential nominee. The clips show Harris supporting federal policies that allow federal inmates to access medical care, including sex-affirming hormone treatment and potentially transgender surgery.
“It sounds crazy because it’s crazy,” the announcer said in an announcement broadcast almost 28,000 times on Thursday in the presidential battlegrounds and on national television. “Kamala’s agenda is ‘not you, they-they’,” the ad says, referring to gender-neutral pronouns.
In the 2019 presidential campaign, Harris wrote in an ACLU questionnaire: “I support policies that ensure that federal inmates and prisoners can receive necessary medical care for gender transition, including surgical care, while incarcerated or incarcerated.”
He also worked as California’s attorney general to provide such care to state prisoners. But Harris is right to point out that similar federal policies have been in place for both immigrant detainees and federal prisoners during the Trump presidency.
At Trump’s rallies, he often addresses LGBTQ issues with generalizations and emotional appeals. He regularly criticizes US military leaders for being “woke”, blaming Harris and President Joe Biden.
The spoof video playing on screens at Trump rallies alternates between intense military training scenes, sometimes drill sergeants yelling at troops, and scenes depicting supposed LGBTQ members of the military, each displaying exaggerated female influence. The video says that the final scenes show the US military under the leadership of Biden and Harris.
When Trump took the stage, several speakers informed the audience about the issue.
“We are in the midst of a national identity crisis. Faith in God, patriotism, hard work, family — those are gone, replaced only by ‘wokeness’ and transsexualism” and other philosophies, former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said at Madison Square Garden. “These are signs of a deeper void of purpose and meaning in our country. signs, and now we have to step up and fill that void with our vision.”