Donald Trump and the Republican Party are pushing an agenda of “divisiveness, confusion and hate” as they spend billions on anti-transgender ads and intensify right-wing anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric, advocates said.
The GOP has spent more than $65 million on ads targeting trans people, the New York Times reported Tuesday, citing the former president's support for gender-affirmation care, which has often targeted Kamala Harris.
Television ads are also running in statewide races, including Ohio, Montana and Montana below the polls. Losing Republicans turn to far-right talking points during Wisconsin's 2022 midterm elections.
“Self [Make America great again] The agenda is one of division, confusion and hatred,” said Brandon Wolf, spokesperson for the LGBTQ+ advocacy group Human Rights Campaign (HRC).
“They are pitting neighbors against each other and trying to divide our communities because they have no vision to uplift the people or unite the nation.”
One Trump ad featured comments the vice president made in 2019, saying he supported “surgery” for trans prisoners. The ad shows Harris posing next to Patti Konia, a drag queen – Konia, whose real name is Win Wylie, says. She may sue the Trump campaign for using her image without permission – and the voiceover ends with: “Kamala is for them, for them. President Trump is for you.
For Americans in the upcoming election on the top issues of the economy and immigration, Trump has focused much of his rhetoric on those topics. But with some polls showing Harris more confident on those issues, Trump and the Republican Party appear to have made a concerted effort to focus on anti-trans issues.
However, there is evidence that this is a failed strategy.
Two years ago Republicans ran anti-trans platforms in races across the country that barely won. Blake Masters, a Republican candidate for the Senate in Arizona, falsely accused Democrats of “teaching kids” during his campaign. He handed out signs in the yard that said: “The Plague Masters in the United States Senate will not hear your pronouns.” Masters lost 5% to Mark Kelly.
Republican candidate Herschel Walker ran ads in Arizona attacking trans athletes and suggested that when trans people “go to heaven,” “Jesus might not recognize you.” Walker lost a by-election to Democrat Raphael Warnock. HRC reported that the American Principles project spent $2 million in 2023 against incumbent Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear in Kentucky to “support transgender youth and their families' freedom to access health care.” Beshear cruises to victory in being historically Republican.
“The more mega-bullies are exposed for America's lack of a plan, the more they return to the same tired playbook of transphobia,” Wolf said. “But again – it's a losing strategy, as voters know very well.”
The anti-trans ad campaigns come at a time when attacks on trans and LGBTQ+ people are becoming more widespread in America. Glaad, the LGBTQ+ advocacy group, found 1,109 anti-LGBTQ+ incidents in the 12 months from June 2023 to June 2024 – a 112% increase from the previous year.
Republicans have introduced hundreds of anti-trans bills across the country in recent years, and opposition to LGBTQ+ rights has become a litmus test for recognition as a GOP politician. Trump has said he will order federal agencies to end all programs that “promote the idea of sexuality and gender reassignment” and will ask Congress to “permanently freeze federal taxpayer dollars” going to gender-affirming care.
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But there's little to show that trans issues are at the forefront of voters' minds.
A poll by HRC conducted after the 2022 midterms found that fewer than 5% of voters identified gender-affirming concern for young people with disabilities or trans participation in sports as issues that would motivate them to vote. Meanwhile, a September New York Times/Sienna poll found majorities in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina and Wisconsin believe that “society should accept transgender people regardless of the gender they identify with” – suggesting that anti-trans ads may have little impact.
“Politicians fueling this attack are out of touch with where their constituents are,” said Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of Glaad.
“Focusing on other people's bodies and other people's children is grotesque. Our Pronouns Don't Make You Poor – Tax Cuts on Rich Americans and Denying Overtime Pay and Enforcing Taxes Through Tariffs
Ellis added: “The ads are a pathetic attempt to make people forget how dramatically these policies will make everyone's life worse.”
