Skip to main content

Trending

  • Fox/Dominion Lawsuit
  • Meta
  • Twitter

Social Media Menu

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Utility Navigation

  • Take Action
  • Search
  • Donate

Media Matters for America

Main navigation

  • News & Analysis
  • Research & Studies
  • Audio & Video
  • Archives

Media Matters for America

  • Nav
  • Search

Main navigation

  • News & Analysis
  • Research & Studies
  • Audio & Video
  • Archives

Trending

  • Fox/Dominion Lawsuit
  • Meta
  • Twitter

Utility Navigation

  • Take Action
  • Search
  • Donate

Social Media Menu

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
Trump speech
Andrea Austria / Media Matters

The chilling Trump speech on “left-wing gender insanity” came straight from right-wing media

Former President Donald Trump is telling the world that his second term in office would be devastating to LGBTQ people. Are the mainstream media listening this time?

Special Programs LGBTQ

Written by Ari Drennen

Research contributions from Jack Winstanley

Published 02/01/23 2:30 PM EST

Share

  • Email
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Print

Comment

  • Comments

On January 31, 2023, candidate and former President Donald Trump released a chilling video on the far-right video sharing platform Rumble, detailing what he called his plan to stop the “chemical, physical, and emotional mutilation of our youth.” Trump’s anti-trans screed came just days after a meeting with the creators of the online hate account Libs of TikTok, echoing their bigoted rhetoric, and could mark the start of a race to the bottom for the 2024 Republican primary. This raises the stakes for responsible media coverage of attacks on a vulnerable community throughout the next Presidential campaign. 

Trump’s speech contained a number of policy proposals that would guarantee that trans minors have little recourse available for gender dysphoria, and appears aimed at creating a chilling effect where hospitals providing gender affirming care or teachers supporting struggling trans students might fear an investigation from a Trump Department of Justice — or the loss of federal funding.

Video file

Citation The January 31, 2023 video posted to former President Donald Trump's page on Rumble 

The former president proposed a potentially significant expansion of federal control of teachers in the form of a “new credentialing body” which “will promote positive education about the nuclear family” and “the roles of mothers and fathers.” He also promised an end to Biden administration policies, and the policies of several states, that allow people to select an “X” gender marker on identification documents, saying that he would “ask Congress to pass a bill establishing that the only genders recognized by the United States government are male and female, and they are assigned at birth,” an unprecedented step in rejecting the existence of trans people that historian Jules Gil-Peterson refers to as the state “trying to become cisgender.” 

Trump’s series of proposals came just days after a meeting with Chaya Raichik and Seth Dillon, the far-right figures behind the Libs of TikTok cyberbullying account, which focused heavily on attacking teachers and children’s hospitals throughout 2022. Raichik, who appears to have close ties with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, another potential 2024 candidate, has been on a recent tour of fringe media, including an appearance with Slightly Offensive host Elijah Schaffer where she said that she hoped to win “transphobe of the year” in 2023. Although anti-trans panic largely failed to resonate with voters in the 2022 midterms, Trump’s comments suggest that it will nonetheless play a key role in the 2024 Republican primary. 

Anti-trans policies are not new for Trump, whose first administration threatened to “[define] transgender out of existence” by using Title IX to define sex as binary, fixed at birth, and defined by genitals. In just the first six months of his term, his administration rescinded Obama-era guidance to protect trans students from discrimination in schools, banned trans people from the military, and advanced an interpretation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that would allow people to be fired for being gay. During his 2016 campaign, mainstream journalists were quick to brand Trump as pro-LGBTQ, as outlined by former Media Matters editor Parker Molloy. The New York Times called him “more accepting.” NBC News correspondent Hallie Jackson said he was “one of the more LGBT-friendly Republican presidents. A Meet the Press chyron called him “more accepting on ‘bathroom laws’.”

Former President George W. Bush said it best: “fool me once — shame on, shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.”

The Latest

  1. Angelo Carusone: As a trial looms, Fox is shifting its strategy in the Dominion case to “pressure other news media into shifting the way that they've been covering their story”

    Video & Audio 03/26/23 9:21 AM EDT

  2. Fox News legal analyst suggests Nancy Pelosi “planned and conjured up” January 6 for her daughter’s documentary

    Video & Audio 03/24/23 7:56 PM EDT

  3. A week after YouTube reinstated Trump’s account, he plans to use the platform to livestream his Waco campaign rally

    Article 03/24/23 4:28 PM EDT

  4. Fox regular Clay Travis complains that Britney Griner is free but rape apologist Andrew Tate is still imprisoned

    Video & Audio 03/24/23 4:23 PM EDT

  5. Fox News has ignored Trump's incitement of violence and racist attack on DA Alvin Bragg

    Research/Study 03/24/23 4:03 PM EDT

Pagination

  • Current page 1
  • …
  • Next page ››

In This Article

  • Donald Trump

    Donald-Trump-MMFA-Tag.png
Comments
0 Comments
Share Count
0 Shares

Related

  1. A week after YouTube reinstated Trump’s account, he plans to use the platform to livestream his Waco campaign rally

    Article 03/24/23 4:28 PM EDT

  2. Fox News has ignored Trump's incitement of violence and racist attack on DA Alvin Bragg

    Research/Study 03/24/23 4:03 PM EDT

  3. Charlie Kirk calls on Gov. Ron DeSantis to make a “sanctuary state” for Donald Trump

    Video & Audio 03/22/23 12:47 PM EDT

Media Matters for America

Sign up for email updates

Footer menu

  • About
  • Contact
  • Corrections
  • Submissions
  • Jobs
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions

Social Media Menu

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

© 2023 Media Matters for America