The Biden campaign celebrated Pride Month with a flash of ads, interviews and engagements with local LGBTQ groups and celebrities to motivate voters before November.
Former President Trump’s campaign takes a decidedly different approach.
The Trump campaign has done nothing special to celebrate Pride Month, a move reminiscent of the many years Trump was in the White House when he non-issuing a proclamation recognizing the month of celebration for the LGBTQ community.
Instead, Trump and his allies are running a broader campaign to argue that his economic and border policies will benefit LGBTQ Americans as much as other communities — even as the former president attacks transgender athletes and vows to roll back protections for transgender students enacted by the Biden administration.
“By reducing inflation and the skyrocketing cost of living, cutting taxes, and restoring law and order in our communities, President Trump’s second-term agenda will create a safer and more prosperous America for ALL Americans, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, race, religion or creed!” Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
Republicans and Trump campaign officials said they would focus less on Pride Month to appeal to LGBTQ voters and instead rely on coalition groups that have spent several months arguing that voters of all backgrounds, genders and sexual orientations fared better during the Trump administration than under the Biden administration.
The Independent Center, a centrist think tank, surveyed 600 Americans Earlier this year, 56 percent of respondents said they would definitely vote for President Biden or lean toward Biden, compared to 28 percent who said they would definitely support or lean toward Trump. Sixteen percent of respondents were undecided.
The poll also found that 24 percent of respondents identified “jobs and the economy” as the country’s most pressing issues, making those issues the top choice among respondents.
“The economy and the malaise that Joe Biden and the Democrats have conjured up is hitting gay families just as hard as Latino families, Asian families and everyone else in this country,” said Charles Moran, chairman of the LGBTQ group Log Cabin Republicans. “So it’s not like we have to present this policy portfolio to these different communities. Your life was better under Donald Trump, and it doesn’t matter what color you were, what gender you were, what sexual identity you were.”
Former First Lady Melania Trump attended a fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago in April for the Log Cabin Republicans, who supported Trump in 2020. Money raised at the event will aid fund the group’s voter outreach efforts in the coming months for the Trump campaign and lower-ballot Republicans.
But despite these efforts, Trump has also promised measures that would severely hinder members of the LGBTQ community.
This includes passing at least a dozen bills against transgender rights if he is re-elected. These include a nationwide ban on transgender student athletes competing according to their gender identity and a federal law that recognizes only two genders.
He has also announced that he will punish health care providers who provide gender-affirming medical care to minors and roll back recent protections for transgender students “on day one” of his presidency.
As president, Trump banned transgender people from openly serving in the military, dismantled Obama-era discrimination protections for LGBTQ people, and rejected requests from U.S. embassies to fly rainbow flags during Pride Month.
Still, Trump’s allies argue that the former president ushered in a recent era in the Republican Party in which LGBTQ Americans are more welcome in the GOP.
Officials said there were several openly gay officials in his administration, including Richard Grenell as acting director of national intelligence. They also pointed to Trump’s comments after his 2016 election victory that he considered the issue of gay marriage to be over.
“He has a long track record as a philanthropist, businessman and politician, and all of those things are consistent with his inclusion of LGBT people,” Moran said.
While LGBTQ voters do not make up a enormous portion of the national electorate, their votes could tip the balance in what is expected to be a close election in November.
Post-election polls After the 2020 election, 7 percent of voters identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. 64 percent of those voters supported Biden, compared to 27 percent who voted for Trump.
Biden, who frequently describes himself and his administration as the most pro-LGBTQ ever, expanded federal discrimination protections for LGBTQ people during his first term and condemned violence and threats against the community. In 2022, Biden signed legislation securing marriage equality.
Biden has also spoken out against Laws at state level that target transgender youth and against Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law, which restricts certain discussions about sexual orientation and gender identity in the state’s schools.
The Biden election campaign in April Out for Biden-Harris launcheda national initiative to mobilize LGBTQ voters. First Lady Jill Biden marked the start of Pride Month by attending the Pittsburgh Pride Festival. The campaign is expected to have a presence at more than 200 Pride events throughout the month, spreading the message that the choice in November is clear.
“This Pride Day is an important occasion to remember the progress we have made for our community under President Biden and what is at stake for LGBTQ+ Americans in this election while Trump takes pride in taking away our rights,” Biden campaign spokesman Kevin Munoz said in a statement.
“From threats [in vitro fertilization] Trump’s Project 2025 agenda not only targets LGBTQ+ marriages, but would strip us of our rights and sow unnecessary hatred and division for Trump’s political gain,” he added.
