US: Donald Trump Promises to Target Transgender Americans on “Day One”

American President-elect Donald Trump has declared that he will clamp down on what he described as “transgender lunacy” in his first days in office.

Trump, who is set to be inaugurated as president for the second time on 20 January 2025, targeted transgender Americans in a speech at the AmericaFest conference, a gathering of right-wing Americans in Arizona on Sunday.

In addition to continuing to boast about winning the US presidential election in November, Trump laid out his plans for the new year.

“With a stroke of my pen on day one, we’re going to stop the transgender lunacy,” he told the cheering crowd.

“And I will sign executive orders to end child sexual mutilation, get transgender out of the military and out of our elementary schools and middle schools and high schools,” Trump continued as the crowd grew more enthusiastic.

“And we will keep men out of women’s sports… that will likewise be done on day one,” he said.

Trump further promised that “under the Trump administration, it will be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female,” adding, “Doesn’t sound too complicated, does it?”

Trump’s presidency is expected to reverse the Biden administration’s more progressive stance on LGBTIQ+ rights, suggesting a bleak four years ahead for queer Americans, particularly members of the transgender community.

The Republican Party has embraced the anti-transgender hysteria and fear fuelled by the global anti-gender movement, which seeks to restrict the sexual and reproductive rights of women and the human rights of sexual and gender minorities.

In the past year, the party has championed hundreds of bills across various states to restrict trans rights, specifically targeting access to gender-affirming healthcare and services.

Many fear Trump will also roll back LGBTQ+ discrimination protections, with speculation that his administration may support right-wing efforts to reverse same-sex marriage rights.

Congress Blocks Gender-Affirming Care for Military Families

On 18 December, the US Senate passed the National Defense Authorization Act, which includes a provision to block the military from offering gender-affirming healthcare for the transgender children of its service members.

Despite the Human Rights Campaign, America’s leading LGBTQ rights group, urging President Biden to veto the bill, he signed it into law this week although criticising the anti-trans provision.

“The provision targets a group based on that group’s gender identity and interferes with parents’ roles to determine the best care for their children,” said Biden. “No service member should have to decide between their family’s health care access and their call to serve our Nation.”

Human Rights Campaign president Kelley Robinson condemned both Congress and the White House for having failed military families.

“Military families lay everything on the line for our country. They uproot and move at a moment’s notice, make immense personal sacrifices, and often risk their lives in defense of our freedoms,” asserted Robinson in a statement. “In turn, that sacrifice has been met with disrespect and the use of their children as a political bargaining chip.”