ATLANTA (AP) — Donald Trump made his opposition to transgender rights the focus of his closing argument before Election Day, using demeaning language and misrepresentations to portray an extremely miniature portion of the U.S. population as a threat to national identity.
The former president and Republican nominee’s campaign and associated political action committees have spent tens of millions of dollars on advertising attacking Democratic nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris over her past statements supporting transgender rights.
His rally speeches now include a parody video mocking transgender people and their position in the US military. The montage, interspersed with clips from the Vietnam War film “Full Metal Jacket,” typically draws noisy boos at his rallies, as do Trump’s false claims about female athletes and his mocking impression of a trans woman he says lifts weights.
“We’re going to… get the hell out of our schools for transgender madness, and we’re going to keep men out of women’s sports,” Trump said at his recent rally at Madison Square Garden, drawing appreciative cheers from the crowd of over 20,000.
While he is often overshadowed by Trump’s emphasis on migrants, his broadsides against LGBTQ people appear to have become more repeated and more ominous in the final days of the campaign, intended both to galvanize his core supporters and to lure more moderate voters to votes cast in others Points may not align with Trump issues. It is part of an overall campaign in which Trump promotes his own brand of hypermasculinity and most recently referred to the gay CNN anchor Anderson Cooper by the female name “Allison Cooper” several times.
Harris largely ignored Trump’s attacks, but declined to characterize her stance, pointing out that during Trump’s presidency there was a federal policy that allowed U.S. military personnel access to gender-inclusive medical care and transgender surgeries.
“I will follow the law,” Harris said in an Oct. 17 interview with Fox News. “And it’s a law that Donald Trump actually followed.” You probably already know it. It is a public record that under the Donald Trump administration, these surgeries were available to people in the federal prison system when medically necessary.”
Speaking on The Breakfast Club podcast earlier this week, she added that Trump was “living in a glass house” with his attacks. She compared the number of people involved: She said two U.S. soldiers had undergone transgender surgery, while millions of people could have their health insurance revoked if Trump and Republicans succeed in their efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
Polls suggest the electorate is divided on transgender rights. According to a May Gallup poll, about half of Americans, 51%, believe it is morally wrong to change one’s gender. According to a 2023 Gallup poll, about seven in 10 Americans say transgender athletes should only be allowed to compete on sports teams that match their birth gender. However, according to a May Gallup poll, about six in 10 Americans oppose laws that ban treatments and medical procedures that aid transgender people conform to their gender identity. About a third support such bans.
Meanwhile, civil rights advocates are expressing concern about what a second Trump administration would mean for LGBTQ rights, saying his campaign messages are already threatening the safety of transgender people, regardless of who prevails.
Trump has vowed to target transgender people if elected. He said he would ask Congress to pass a bill saying there are “only two genders” and ban hormonal or surgical procedures for transgender minors in all 50 states.
Sarah Kate Ellis, president of the 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 discussing medical care for transgender people? Because there is a lack of understanding and humanization of who trans people are,” Ellis said. “It’s not easy being transgender, waking up every day in a body that may not fit who you are, and instead of showing empathy you’re met with hostility. That’s the culture Trump is creating.”
Author and activist Charlotte Clymer added on the social media platform, “When you see the ads, it’s demoralizing to know that this entire subset of people see us as subhuman.”
In fact, since September 1, the Trump campaign has spent about $35 million airing three ads based on statements Harris made in 2019 as a candidate for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. Clips show Harris reiterating her support for federal policies that allow federal prisoners access to medical care, including gender-affirming hormone treatments and potentially transgender surgeries.
“It sounds crazy because it is crazy,” said one ad that had aired nearly 28,000 times on presidential battlegrounds and on national television as of Thursday. “Kamala’s agenda is ‘they-them,’ not you,” the ad concludes, referring to non-gendered pronouns.
Harris wrote in an ACLU questionnaire during her 2019 presidential campaign: “I support policies that ensure that federal prisoners and detainees can receive medically necessary care for gender transition, including surgical care, while incarcerated or incarcerated.”
She also worked as California’s attorney general to ensure state prisoners had access to this care. But Harris is correct when he notes that similar federal policies applied under Trump’s presidency, both for detained immigrants and federal prisoners.
At Trump’s rallies, he often addresses LGBTQ issues with generalizations and emotional appeals. He regularly berates U.S. military leaders for being “woke” and blames Harris and President Joe Biden.
The parody video playing on screens at Trump’s rallies alternates between scenes of intense military training, sometimes with drill sergeants yelling at troops, and scenes depicting supposedly LGBTQ members of the military, each displaying exaggerated female affectations. The latter scenes, the video says, reflect the US military under Biden and Harris.
When Trump takes the stage, several speakers have prepared the audience for the topic.
“We are 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 philosophies, said former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy at Madison Square Garden. “These are symptoms of a deeper meaninglessness and meaninglessness in our country, and now we must step up and fill this void with our own vision.”
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Associated Press writer Linley Sanders in Washington contributed to this report.
