On Jan. 20, 2017, just hours after Donald Trump officially became the 45th president of the United States, every mention of the LGBTQ+ community was scrubbed from the White House website. The U.S. Department of State followed suit just three days later.
Trump nominated his first of three Supreme Court justices by the end of the month, a soon-to-be conservative majority that would overturn nearly five decades of U.S. precedent in Roe v. Wade. One justice used the decision to say SCOTUS should revisit marriage equality.
The Departments of Justice and Education revoked guidance protecting transgender students in February. Trump subsequently banned transgender adults from serving in the U.S. military, a policy announced via Twitter, and used the rest of the year to attack marginalized groups on and off social media. After a white supremacist rally left one American dead that August, he infamously asserted there were “fine people on both sides.”
Democrats secured a U.S. House majority in 2018, reintroducing the Equality Act to protect LGBTQ+ Americans, and the Trump administration announced its opposition to the legislation. In 2019, they argued employers should be able to fire LGBTQ+ Americans because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
The former president was impeached for the first of two times that year as well, for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. According to the National Institute of Health, he would also fail “to mount a timely and effective response to the COVID‐19 outbreak, despite ample warning.”
Trump ultimately lost his re-election to President Joe Biden in 2020, leading his supporters to attack the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. He was later indicted for his efforts to overturn the election.
These reasons and more led LGBTQ+ organizations nationwide to oppose Trump’s third bid for president, which he won this month. Exit polling showed LGBTQ+ voters overwhelming supported his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, who received 86% of the community’s support.
That’s because LGBTQ+ Americans have “risen again and again to meet moments that have challenged our rights, our humanity and our freedom,” over 80 LGBTQ+ groups said in a joint statement Nov. 6. Signatories included the Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBTQ+ civil rights organization in the nation and Equality Florida, which holds that designation in the state.
“Ours is a long history of never backing down from a fight for our rights … we have pushed forward and achieved significant progress across the decades,” the letter reads. “From the early days of the Mattachine Society and Daughters of Bilitis, to the Stonewall Uprising and HIV/AIDS activism, to achieving marriage equality and anti-discrimination protections in the workplace, to the fight for transgender rights, and beyond, we march on.
“For every member of the LGBTQIA2S+ community and for those who support us: We’ve got this. We’ve got us,” it continues. “No matter who you are, where you live, or the outcome of [the] election … we are an LGBTQIA2S+ community united. Our work continues.”
Watermark reached out to LGBTQ+ and ally voices across Florida to showcase that. They share their thoughts on Trump becoming the 47th U.S. president here:
Nicholas Machuca: We Are The Resistance
Jakob Hero-Shaw: Time to be Brave
Felipe Sousa-Lazaballet: Finding Strength in Each Other
Leigh Shannon: Choosing Peace in Tumultuous Times
