From hope to horror: What Trump’s victory means for women and LGBTQIA+ rights
The historic 2024 US presidential election was unlike any other in the history of the USA. Witnessing a late candidate switch, two lopsided debates, two assassination attempts, and an intervention by the world’s richest man, the election was described by The Guardian writer David Smith as having “euphoria reminiscent of Barack Obama and rhetoric evocative of Adolf Hitler.” In a truly, almost equally divided nation, the USA was either about to elect their first female president in its 248-year history, Kamala Harris, or return the power to former president and convicted felon, Donald Trump. Regardless of the result, both parties and their supporters were utterly convinced that their side must win for defeat would signify the end of democracy and freedom.
In the early hours of November 7 2024, millions of Americans were devastated by the news. Trump had won 312 electoral votes compared with Harris’ 226 with just under 76 million voters across the country. Although a solid win, Trump’s win is not the landslide victory he claims it to be. He gained 50.2% of the national vote, incomparable to Obama’s 365 electoral votes in 2008 and 332 in 2012. In the wake of this shocking and for many, tragic, result, one of the biggest concerns regards Trump’s government’s relationship with women’s and LGBTQIA+ rights under its new constitution. The decade-old debate of a woman’s abortion rights continues to divide the US, with its new president and his Agenda 47 invoking a highly censored, patriarchal, dictatorship state. How will a Trump government exacerbate this ever-growing gender divide and what implications does this have for women and LGBTQIA+ communities in the US?
Trump’s presidency would see a national law prohibiting basic healthcare procedures and medication for young Americans
Agenda 47 is the Republican Party’s manifesto detailing policies that would be implemented by Trump upon his election. Presented on the campaign’s website as a series of videos with Trump outlining each proposal, it has been criticised by many and described as fascist and authoritarian. The infamous Project 2025 is a 900-page agenda assembled by the Heritage Foundation, a leading conservative think tank, with at least 140 former Trump administration officials involved in its drafting. It offers a step-by-step guide on how to quickly implement an extreme program across the federal government from day one. Fundamentally, Project 2025 focuses on enforcing a vision of the family that relies on “fixed and narrowly defined gender roles and in undermining protections that enable women and LGBTQIA+ people to thrive outside of a male-dominated, heterosexual family.”
Despite denying knowledge about Project 2025, one of Trump’s closest allies, Russel Vought, while being secretly recorded, claimed that Trump had “been at our organisation, had raised money for our organisation…[and] is very supportive of what we do.” Additionally, Agenda 47 and Project 2025 have many similarities: both include policies such as expanding presidential power, cuts to the Department of Education, mass deportations of ‘illegal immigrants’, the death penalty for drug dealers, and the use of the US National Guard in cities with high crime rates deemed to be “disorderly”. It is reasonable to assume that Trump believes in and plans to implement Project 2025’s transphobic, xenophobic, patriarchal and climate-denialist policies.
Agenda 47 focuses very heavily on education, specifically removing racial and gender content within curricula and removing medical and emotional care for queer and transgender students. In what is described as the “chemical, physical, and emotional mutilation of our youth,” Trump promises to sign a new executive order instructing every federal agency to “cease all programs that promote the concept of sex and gender transition at any age.” By revoking Joe Biden’s “cruel” policies on gender-affirming care, Trump’s presidency would see a national law prohibiting basic healthcare procedures and medication for young Americans including a range of social, psychological, behavioural, and medical interventions designed to support and affirm an individual’s gender identity. Described by Katherine Imborek, MD, as a “medical necessity, like providing insulin to a person with diabetes…that decreased depression, anxiety and suicide attempts,” Agenda 47 describes this support as “child sexual mutilation” and that if “any teacher or school official suggests to a child that they could be trapped in the wrong body, they will be faced with severe consequences, including potential Civil Rights violations for sex discrimination.”
Trump so heavily insists on protecting American children and yet has policies that will do the opposite
These policies are very similar to that of Project 2025, in which gender-affirming care is once again described as “experimental medical interventions,” and should be banned from educational institutions, especially without parental consent. Parents will therefore have guaranteed control of their child’s sexual orientation and presentation at school and be able to remove their children from certain subjects and topics, should they go against cultural or religious beliefs. This is a terrifying and restrictive proposition for many children and young people who live in homes that do not yet accept their identity and forms of expression. This, and Trump’s intention to ask Congress to pass a bill establishing that the only genders recognised by the US government are male and female, and determined at birth, will have detrimental effects on the LGBTQIA+ community, and their families. By severely restricting, if not banning, essential healthcare for young people struggling with their identity and sexual orientation, depression and suicide levels will increase among the youth. Trump so heavily insists on protecting American children and yet has policies that will do the opposite.
Across both Agenda 47 and Project 2025, alarming conservative policies are raised regarding female bodily autonomy, the place of women within society, and the ‘necessity’ of nuclear families. Trump’s campaign repeatedly insists on promoting “positive education about the nuclear family, the roles of mothers and fathers, and celebrating rather than erasing the things that make men and women different and unique.” After having five children across three wives, it feels hypocritical that Trump prides himself on implementing an enforcement of nuclear family ideologies. What’s more, his campaign strongly believes in upholding Christian values within schools and plans to enforce Christian teachings and prayer across the US. Once again, this is hypocritical considering Trump himself has not followed the basis of Christian teachings regarding family and marriage.
Project 2025 has very clear, extreme views concerning the seemingly never-ending debate on abortion. According to Project 2025, “From the moment of conception, every human being possesses inherent dignity and worth…[so] the Secretary must ensure that all HHS programs and activities are rooted in a deep respect for innocent human life from day one until natural death: abortion and euthanasia are not healthcare.” Trump’s own views regarding abortion are unclear and have seemingly changed across the years, however, after assessing his Christian-focused agenda and 26 rape and groping allegations, as well as a deep history of insulting and belittling women in person and online, it is fair to assume his presidency could see heavier restrictions, if not bans, on women’s access to abortion across the US.
Myself, and millions of women across the world, are experiencing the visceral body horror of another Trump administration, holding fear, tension, and trauma among us
Agenda 47 stands “proudly for families and life,” believing that the 14th Amendment to The Constitution guarantees that no person can be denied Life or Liberty without Due Process and following the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, “because of us, that power has been given to the States and to a vote of the People.” Trump has applauded himself for his role in the 2022 ruling, since he nominated three of the Supreme Court Justices who voted to overturn Roe, calling the flood of state-level restrictions “a beautiful thing to watch.” What’s more, Trump has repeatedly refused to say if he would veto a national abortion ban if it crossed his desk as president. This unclarity on planned abortion policies, or rather the lack of guaranteed abortion access, is a terrifying notion for it enables and enhances the very real possibility of further restrictions and a nationwide ban. Trump’s Vice President, J.D. Vance, himself has previously voted against a bill that would have increased access to in vitro fertilisation and has also supported banning abortion with no exceptions for rape or incest. As said so astutely by Dierdre Schifeling, chief political and advocacy officer for the American Civil Liberties Union, “I wouldn’t base any assessment of what a Trump presidency is likely to look like based on what he happens to say this day, if you look at what he’s done in the past, he is the reason that we don’t have the same kind of protections and access to abortion today that we did for 50 years.”
A man with 26 public sexual assault allegations and a continuous track record of derogatory language and attitudes towards women now sits as one of the most powerful men in the world. He has described his daughter as having a “very nice figure” and has said that he would date her if she weren’t his daughter. He has defended himself against assault accuser E Jean Carroll by saying, “No 1, she’s not my type. No 2, it never happened,” and he has described Rosie O’Donnell as a “slob,” someone who he would fire for having “that fat, ugly face”. American women and girls, and the LGBTQIA+ community will inevitably suffer during the next four years, with so many of their freedoms and healthcare support are being restricted or banned entirely. Myself, and millions of women across the world, are experiencing the visceral body horror of another Trump administration, holding fear, tension, and trauma among us. Claiming to be a “protector” of women, Trump is anything but, as we are plunged into another cold anticipatory grief of the US launching itself into chaos as his vanity, greed, and incompetence take precedence over national interest. This US election could have proven to young girls across the world that they can achieve anything; instead, it has shown young boys they can be convicted felons and rape women and still be the most powerful man in the country.
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