Unity was expected to be a feature of the Republican National Convention for presidential candidates following the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.
“I’m running for president not for half of America, but for all of America, because winning for half of America is not winning,” Trump said.
Trump’s former acting director of national intelligence, Richard Grenell, who is gay, told the audience: “President Trump doesn’t care if you’re gay or straight, if you’re black or brown or white or what your gender is.”
But the message of unity rings hollow to some in the LGBTQ community, who say they have been repeatedly attacked on the national stage by President Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee and others.
“It’s hard to remain hopeful when anti-LGBTQ sentiment hits town,” LGBTQ group Fair Wisconsin said in a post on X. “But Fair Wisconsin knows this sentiment is not who we are. The vast majority of Wisconsinites support the rights of LGBTQ+ people, and we hope that the creation of the Fair Map, the first in more than a decade, will be an opportunity to turn the tide on anti-LGBTQ+ legislation.”
Former U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell performs on stage ahead of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on July 14, 2024. Brian Snyder/Reuters
According to the ACLU, state legislatures across the country are seeing a record number of bills targeting the LGBTQ community, including bans on transgender youth care and restrictions on drag shows, with more than 500 bills expected to be introduced nationwide by 2024.
Federal and local government agencies have also expressed concern about an increase in threats and violent incidents against the LGBTQ community amid a rise in anti-LGBTQ rhetoric.
According to the CDC and the Williams Institute, LGBTQ people, especially transgender people, face higher rates of violence, discrimination, and bullying.
And yet several speakers at the Republican National Convention, including Trump, openly and continually criticized transgender and non-binary people throughout the convention.
LGBTQ Issues at the RNC
The LGBTQ community is a small minority in the U.S. population — less than 8 percent of the population, according to a Gallup poll — but they had a large presence in the policy platforms of candidates at the Republican National Convention.
“We were wealthier, we had lower inflation, we had two genders,” Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., said of his view of the country during the Trump administration.
Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin drew a chorus of boos when he spoke out against transgender women and girls playing on girls’ sports teams and claimed Democrats supported “brainwashing our children.”
Trump also said he would put an end to transgender participation in sports, claiming that “men” play on women’s teams. Transgender participation in sports has also been a source of contention between states, with supporters arguing that transgender women and girls have an advantage in sports and critics arguing that there is no evidence to support such claims of physiological advantage.
President Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., accused Democrats of “teaching kids there are 57 genders” and “not even being able to define what a woman is” — a view shared by Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders and others.
This comes as Republican lawmakers across the country are seeking to create legal definitions of “female” and “male” based on their reproductive organs, with an exception for intersex people.
Proponents argue that defining sex in specific biological terms would improve safety, privacy and accuracy of public data.
Critics argue that this restrictive definition will prevent the government from legally recognizing transgender people and will also lead to discrimination and inaccurate identification practices.
Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump pauses during his speech after formally accepting the Republican Party’s presidential nomination on stage at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on July 18, 2024. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Vance’s Record
The selection of J.D. Vance as President Trump’s running mate has alarmed LGBTQ advocates who say he has a strong anti-LGBTQ record.
At the Republican National Convention, Vance said the Republican Party is “committed to free speech and the free exchange of ideas.”
However, Vance has stated he would vote “no” on bills to legalize same-sex marriage, and he opposes the collection of census data on gender identity, arguing that it is unscientific that people can identify with a gender that does not match the sex they were assigned at birth (defined by the CDC as “culturally expected roles, behaviors, activities, and characteristics based on gender”).
He also introduced the Passport Integrity Act, a bill that would ban the use of the “X” gender designation on U.S. passports, and the Child Innocence Act, which would ban puberty suppression drugs, hormone therapy, gender reassignment surgery and other care for transgender youth.
“LGBTQ Americans are taxpayers, family members, coworkers, classmates, neighbors and friends, and our concerns are the same as any other American: the freedom to be who we are to live safe and dignified lives; the right to make private health care decisions; the right to read the books we love; the right to marry the person we love; and the right not to be discriminated against for who we are,” said Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of LGBTQ advocacy organization GLAAD.
ABC News has reached out to Vance for comment on the criticism.
