What the list means for LGBTQ+ rights

Project 2025, if it needs to be explained at this point, is an infamous manifesto proposal for the ultra-conservative faction of the Republican Party and, many believe, Donald Trump’s second term.

And as many LGBTQ+ Americans wake up to the grim and shocking reality of a second Trump presidency on November 6, it seems like a particularly good time to find out what the document will do for the rights of queer people in the US over the next four years could mean.

Not surprisingly, while Project 2025 promises to “overthrow the deep state and return government to the people,” it also threatens to destroy the rights and progress of the LGBTQ+ community in the US.

The handbook’s authors claim that one of the biggest problems facing the US today is the “toxic normalization of transgenderism with drag queens and pornography in school libraries.”

Project 2025 further states that “transgender ideology” is a form of “pornography” linked to the “sexualization of children.” In total, “gender” is mentioned 111 times in the handbook and “LGBT” or “LGBTQ” 18 times.

Seen as a kind of right-wing wish list, Project 2025 promises to eliminate anti-discrimination policies to make it easier to target and discriminate against LGBTQ+ people.

The document, issued by the right-wing hardline Heritage Foundation, calls for the removal of terms such as “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” from federal regulations and laws, as well as the repeal of regulations that prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, transgender Status and gender characteristics.

Project 2025 outlined plans to limit the application of the Supreme Court’s decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, which extended workplace protections from gender discrimination to LGBTQ+ employees.

In addition, there are plans to restrict access to healthcare for transgender people, which is described as a form of “child abuse”. The authors also call for transgender health care to no longer be covered by Medicare and Medicaid and for anti-discrimination rules based on gender identity and sexual orientation to be eliminated.

Additionally, there are plans to reverse policies allowing transgender people to serve in the military, a ban originally put in place under the Trump administration but repealed by President Joe Biden. If passed, the project would expel transgender soldiers and people with HIV in 2025.

The State Department’s LGBTQ+ equality initiatives in Africa would also be discontinued. In other words, there would be no effort to prevent the passage of draconian anti-queer laws in countries like Uganda.

In the education sector, the conservative draft is even more strictly anti-LGBTQ+. It calls for a ban on students using names or pronouns that do not match the gender on their birth certificate and for no school employee to be “forced” to use a student’s chosen pronouns.

The document outlines ideas for removing LGBTQ+-inclusive curricula and policies from schools, claiming that “critical race theory and gender ideology” “poison and indoctrinate children with left-wing ideologies.” Instead, priority would be given to families “consisting of a married mother, a married father and their children.”

Although many of its authors were former Trump administration advisers, the former president claims to know “nothing about Project 2025” or who is behind it, saying, “I disagree with some of the things they say and some things . “They say they are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal.”

And two of his campaign advisers emphasized: “President Trump’s campaign has made it very clear that Project 2025 has nothing to do with the campaign, does not speak for the campaign and should in no way be associated with the campaign.”

A spokesperson for Project 2025 even told CNN that it “does not speak for any candidate or campaign.”

However, Democrats continue to point to connections between the 922-page document and Trump. Now that he has won the election, will Trump finally admit that he was involved in Project 2025? Only time will tell.

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