Trump and Vance put anti-transgender attacks at the heart of their campaign’s final argument

Bill Barrow
| Associated Press

Atlanta — Donald Trump put his opposition to transgender rights at the center of his closing argument ahead of Election Day, using demeaning language and misrepresentations to portray an extremely narrow segment of the US population as a threat to national identity.

The former president’s and Republican nominee’s campaign and aligned political action committees have spent tens of millions of dollars on advertising attacking Democratic nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris for her past statements in support of transgender rights.

His rally speeches now feature a fake video mocking trans people and their place in the US military. The montage, interspersed with clips from the Vietnam War movie “Full Metal Jacket,” usually draws loud boos at his rallies, as do Trump’s false claims about female athletes and his mocking impression of what he says is a trans woman who lift weights.

“We’re going to get the … transgender insanity out of our schools and keep men out of women’s sports,” Trump said at his recent rally in Madison Square Garden, drawing a roar of approval from the crowd of more than 20,000.

His running mate, JD Vance, argued Thursday that “middle-class or upper-middle-class” white teenagers can identify as transgender to get into elite universities more easily. In doing so, Vance invoked conservative anger over affirmative action and other programs aimed at historically disenfranchised groups.

“Is there a dynamic where if you come out as trans, that’s the way to reject your white privilege?” Vance said, speaking to podcaster Joe Rogan. “That’s the only social signifier, the only one that’s available in the hyper-awakened mindset, is if you become the non-binary gender.”

Although often overshadowed by his focus on migrants, Trump’s anti-LGBTQ views have appeared to become increasingly frequent and ominous in the final days of the campaign, designed both to rouse his core supporters, as well as to convince the votes of more moderate voters, who might not go with Trump in other cases. it matters. It’s part of an overall campaign in which Trump has promoted his own brand of hyper-masculinity, most recently referring several times to CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, who is gay, under a woman’s name, “Allison Cooper.” .

Harris largely ignored Trump’s attacks, but rejected his characterization of her positions, noting that federal policy giving US military personnel access to gender-affirming medical care and transgender surgeries has been in place during Trump’s presidency .

“I will abide by the law,” Harris said in an Oct. 17 Fox News interview. “And it’s a law that Donald Trump has actually followed. You are probably familiar by now. It is a public report that, under the administration of Donald Trump, these surgeries were available on a medically necessary basis for people in the federal prison system.”

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. service members have sought transgender surgery, while millions could be without health insurance if Trump and Republicans succeed in their efforts to repeal the law on affordable care.

Polls suggest an electorate divided over transgender rights. About half of Americans, 51 percent, say gender reassignment is morally wrong, according to a May Gallup poll. About 7 in 10 Americans say transgender athletes should only be allowed to compete on sports teams that match their birth sex, according to a 2023 Gallup poll. However, about 6 in 10 Americans oppose laws that ban medical treatments and procedures that help transgender people align with their gender identity, according to a May Gallup poll. About a third are in favor of such bans.

Civil rights advocates, meanwhile, are concerned about what a second Trump administration would mean for LGBTQ rights and say his campaign messages already threaten the safety of transgender people, regardless of who prevails.

Trump has promised to target transgender people if elected. He said he would ask Congress to pass a bill that would state there are “only two sexes” and ban hormone or surgical intervention 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 percent of the population “and are already marginalized” by much of society.

“Why are we debating trans health care? Because there is a lack of understanding and a lack of humanization of who trans people are,” Ellis said. “It’s not easy being trans, waking up every day in a body that might not match who you are, and instead of having empathy, you’re met with hostility. This is the culture that Trump is creating.”

Writer and activist Charlotte Clymer added on social media platform X: “It’s really… gross to watch any sporting event as a trans person right now because of Trump’s ads and everyone just needs to know that: yes, we see ads and it’s demoralizing to know that this whole subset of people see us as subhuman.”

Indeed, the Trump campaign has spent about $35 million since September 1 airing three ads based on statements Harris made in 2019 as a candidate for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. The clips show Harris affirming her support for federal policies that allow federal inmates access to health care, including sex-affirming hormone treatments and potentially transgender surgery.

“It sounds crazy because it’s crazy,” the announcer said in an ad that, as of Thursday, had been played nearly 28,000 times across presidential battlegrounds and national television. “Kamala’s agenda is ‘them’, not you,” the ad concludes, referring to non-gendered pronouns.

Harris, in her 2019 presidential campaign, wrote in an ACLU questionnaire: “I support policies that ensure that federal prisoners and inmates can obtain necessary medical care for gender transition, including surgical care, while incarcerated or detained.”

She also worked as California’s attorney general to grant access to such care for state prisoners. But Harris is correct in noting that similar federal policies have been in place under the Trump presidency, both for immigrant detainees and federal prisoners.

At Trump’s rallies, he often approaches LGBTQ issues with generalizations and emotional appeals. He routinely chides US military leaders for being “woke,” blaming Harris and President Joe Biden.

The spoofed video playing on screens at Trump rallies alternates between scenes of intense military training, sometimes with drill sergeants yelling at troops, and scenes depicting what are supposed to be LGBTQ members of the military, each displaying exaggerated female affect. The latter scenes, the video shows, reflect the US military under the leadership of Biden and Harris.

By the time Trump took the stage, several speakers had primed the audience on the issue.

“We are in the midst of a crisis of national identity. Belief in God, patriotism, hard work, family — those things are gone only to be replaced by “vegism” and transgenderism” and other philosophies, former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said at Madison Square Garden. “These are symptoms of a deeper void of purpose and meaning in our country, and right now we need to step up and fill that void with our own vision.”

Associated Press writer Linley Sanders in Washington contributed to this report.