Before his initial run for president, Donald Trump had varying views on LGBTQ+ issues. One of his first campaign claims was that he supported “traditional marriage.” Less than a year later, in 2016, he voiced support for the queer community in the wake of the Pulse nightclub shooting. However, in his response, he focused on national security and foreign influence instead of addressing the tragedy as a targeted hate crime. He made a promise to protect LGBTQ+ citizens from “hateful foreign ideology,” but the call was coming from inside the White House.

Although his wife Melania falsely claimed that he was the first man to enter the presidency supporting same-sex marriage, Donald Trump spent his first term scaling back protections for LGBTQ+ community members. The widely popular Equality Act, a bill later passed by Joe Biden that amended the Civil Rights Act to include gender identity and sexuality, was stalled by Trump. Similarly, the Trump administration brought forth an amicus briefing to the Supreme Court that stated federal safeguards against discrimination in the workplace did not extend to the LGBTQ+ community.

Trump also appointed notoriously anti-LGBTQ+ judges to federal court, including Supreme Court justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. According to a report by Lambda Legal, 40% of Trump’s appointed judges have a traceable record of bias against LGBTQ+ people and those who are HIV positive.

With the support of the Supreme Court, Trump instated a trans military ban, barring transgender people from enlisting unless they do so under their gender assigned at birth. Members of the US Military who were HIV positive were also targeted by Trump-era legislation. With the Defense Department’s recently overturned  ‘Deploy or Get Out’ policy, soldiers could not enlist or deploy for active duty outside of the US if they were HIV positive.

In a campaign video for the 2024 US election, Trump likened gender-affirming healthcare to child abuse, claiming that “gender insanity (is) being pushed on our children.” He has also threatened to pull federal funds from doctors who administer gender-affirming care to transgender youth. Along with sponsoring advertisements denouncing Harris and her arguable support for the transgender community, Trump made trans issues a major talking point at his rallies.

Education is also at risk as he has proposed a day-one executive order to cut funding for schools that teach about critical race theory, transitioning, and “inappropriate content.” His vague language opens the door for serious restrictions on public education, while simultaneously enforcing harmful conservative rhetoric.

Both Trump and his running mate JD Vance have centred anti-trans rhetoric on the campaign trail. Vance, a long-time adversary of the LGBTQ+ community, was vocally against the proposition that allowed a person’s gender to be marked as X or other on their passport. Most notably, Vance was behind a bill called the Protect Children’s Innocence Act that would have effectively banned gender-affirming healthcare for young trans people at a national level.

After Trump’s upcoming inauguration on January 6, Americans could see a reinstatement of acts such as the trans military ban, or restrictions on gender-affirming care for minors that didn’t pass during the Biden administration. Title IX protections are also at stake, as the 2024 proposition that would cover LGBTQ+ identities in education could be pulled by Donald Trump.

With regards to the ongoing violence in the Middle East, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was reportedly among the first world leaders to call Trump to congratulate him following his election. “The two agreed to work together for Israel’s security. The two also discussed the Iranian threat,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.

Trump also previously slammed pro-Palestine protests taking place across America, saying that if elected, he would “set the movement back 25 or 30 years”.

Trump has the power to redo all of the undoing that has come in the previous four years. He stands to continue the back-and-forth between Republicans and Democrats that America is all too familiar with.

The reversal of these fundamental protections is being felt throughout the US. According to PinkNews, LGBTQ+ charity The Trevor Project saw a large uptick in calls to its crisis hotline during the election. The fear perpetuated by Trump during his campaign is only fanning the flames of hatred.

The fate of the US is in the hands of two men who are trying to erase queer and trans identities, and with an increase in hate incidents based on sexuality and gender, the LGBTQ+ community is more unsafe than ever. The hope of queer Americans no longer lies within the President. Now, it is up to the people of the United States to continue the fight for queer liberation.