Trump, Project 2025, and the LGBTQ+ community
The Trump administration has made swift progress in enacting portions of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 blueprint — particularly those aimed at reversing federal support for LGBTQ+ communities. Despite publicly disavowing the plan during the 2024 campaign, President Trump has embraced many of its policy goals, including rollbacks that disproportionately harm queer and transgender Americans. Among the most significant impacts have been changes to protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity, as well as dismantling HIV prevention and treatment initiatives.
In March, Trump signed an executive order redefining “sex” in all federal anti-discrimination policies as strictly biological male or female. This interpretation removes federal civil rights protections for LGBTQ+ people in healthcare, education, housing, and employment. At the same time, the Department of Health and Human Services has begun rescinding Obama-era requirements that ensured coverage of gender-affirming care. Medicare and Medicaid programs are being reviewed to potentially eliminate such coverage altogether.
These moves go hand-in-hand with the administration’s revival of the transgender military ban and its directive to strip funding from public schools that support diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs. LGBTQ+ student groups and inclusive curricula are now considered non-essential — and in some cases, grounds for federal defunding.
The administration’s stance has also taken direct aim at HIV-related programs. Under Project 2025’s call to “streamline” global health and domestic aid, Trump has halted funding for several HIV prevention efforts, including those serving LGBTQ+ populations and communities of color. Key grants to community-based organizations were suspended, and international HIV/AIDS programs were cut, including portions of PEPFAR (the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief), which has historically enjoyed bipartisan support.
USAID, which had been instrumental in delivering HIV medication and education abroad, has met 100% of Project 2025’s goals — including the elimination of programs that reference LGBTQ+ inclusion or address HIV among marginalized groups. The administration redirected some of this funding to Christian humanitarian groups, drawing outrage from global health advocates. In the wake of these cuts, multiple lawsuits have been filed, and the Supreme Court recently ordered the administration to pay $2 billion in damages to terminated USAID contractors.
Perhaps the most incendiary moment came in April when Trump declared in a National Child Abuse Prevention Month proclamation that gender-affirming care for minors constitutes “child abuse.” Medical experts and LGBTQ+ advocates slammed the language, noting that it fosters stigma and puts trans youth at increased risk of mental health crises, homelessness, and HIV vulnerability.
While Trump’s campaign insists Project 2025 is “not associated” with the president, his administration’s alignment with its policy recommendations tells a different story. Dozens of Project 2025 architects have been appointed to key positions, fueling a rapid and coordinated rollback of LGBTQ+ rights and public health support.
Civil rights and HIV advocacy groups warn that the damage could be long-lasting. “These aren’t just culture war policies,” said one advocate. “They are life-and-death decisions, especially for LGBTQ+ people living with or at risk for HIV.”
