Trump and LGBTQ Americans
How Trump's policies targeted LGBTQ Americans, and the harm that followed
By Erik Gauger · Updated October 10, 2026
In February 2017, a month into his first term, Trump's administration withdrew federal protections for transgender students. Months later, he announced on Twitter that transgender Americans could no longer serve in the military. In his second term, he signed orders on his first day back in office that erased transgender people from federal policy altogether.
This page records those policies and the harm researchers have since measured, including studies linking anti-trans laws to worse mental health among transgender young people. It also documents attacks on LGBTQ Americans, but holds them to a strict standard: an attack is included only where there is a documented link to Trump or his rhetoric. National figures on anti-LGBTQ violence are shown for context and are not added to the toll.
On standards. This is not a partisan record: the same evidentiary rules apply whatever the politics of the victim or the perpetrator. Every entry links to court records, government data, published research or established news reporting, documented actions are kept apart from alleged motives, and recorded deaths apart from estimates. How this record is kept
The record, latest first
Anti-trans laws and suicide attempts among transgender teenagers: an estimate
Each year the laws are in force · Estimate from published research
Nineteen states, then Washington. Between 2018 and 2022, 19 states passed 48 laws aimed at transgender people: bans on their medical care, on school sports, on bathrooms. Most were passed by legislatures of Trump’s party, and in January 2025 he made the same restrictions federal policy. In 2024, researchers at The Trevor Project published the first study to measure what those laws did. Comparing more than 61,000 transgender and nonbinary young people in states that passed such laws with those in states that did not, they found that enacting the laws increased past-year suicide attempts among transgender and nonbinary young people by 7 to 72 percent.
By January 2026, 382,800 transgender teenagers aged 13 to 17 lived in the 29 states with at least one such law. About 14 percent of transgender and nonbinary young people attempt suicide in a given year. Applied to those teenagers, the study’s range means roughly 3,600 to 28,400 more suicide attempts every year than there would have been without the laws.
Estimated harm: about 3,600–28,400 additional suicide attempts a year among transgender teenagers
How this estimate is made. 382,800 teenagers (Williams Institute) × a past-year attempt rate of about 14 percent (Trevor Project 2024 national survey), with the national rate adjusted down to remove the laws’ own effect, × the study’s 7 percent (low) and 72 percent (high) increases. It counts attempts, not deaths, and only teenagers 13 to 17, although the study found increases among young adults up to age 24 as well. The laws are state laws; the study did not measure Trump’s federal orders. This figure is shown on its own and is not added to the record’s totals of dead and injured.
Sources: Lee et al., Nature Human Behaviour (2024); The Trevor Project (study summary); Williams Institute (January 2026); Trevor Project 2024 National Survey.
The suicide hotline's line for LGBTQ young people goes dark
July 17, 2025 · His administration's policy
Nationwide. The administration ended the specialized option on the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline for LGBTQ young people, the “Press 3” line run with The Trevor Project, which had answered nearly 1.3 million young callers since 2022. LGBTQ youth are more than four times as likely as their peers to attempt suicide. A 2024 study in Nature Human Behaviour found that state anti-transgender laws were followed by increases in suicide attempts among transgender and nonbinary young people.
Sources: NPR; CNN via ABC 17; HealthDay; The Trevor Project (study summary).
Three orders in eight days erase transgender Americans from federal policy
January 20–28, 2025 · His administration's policy
Washington, D.C.. On his first day back in office, Trump signed an order declaring that the federal government recognizes only two sexes, fixed at birth, and directing agencies to strip gender identity from passports, prisons, programs and grants. A week later he ordered transgender troops out of the military; in May the Supreme Court let the ban take effect while the challenges continued. The next day he signed an order aimed at ending gender-affirming care for anyone under 19, and hospitals across the country began shutting down their programs for young people.
Sources: NPR; AP via WBTV.
Anti-trans policies and funding rules imposed nationwide
January–July 2025 · His administration's policy
United States. Trump turned anti-trans policy into a governing program. On January 20 he ordered agencies to define sex strictly as biological and to roll back guidance protecting gender identity. A January 28 directive told agencies and funded partners to restrict gender-affirming care for youth. HHS moved to unwind Section 1557 health-care protections, and Education and HHS used funding leverage to force new rules on school sports. Fatal violence against trans and gender-expansive people ran at roughly 30 to 40 killings per year, with Black trans women hit hardest.
National context, not attributed to Trump: 27 transgender and gender non-conforming people killed, November 2024 to November 2025 (Human Rights Campaign)
National context, not attributed to Trump: 932 anti-LGBTQ incidents, including at least 85 assaults and 10 deaths, May 2024 to May 2025 (GLAAD ALERT Desk)
Transgender Americans lose the right to a passport that matches who they are
January – November 2025 · His administration's policy
Washington, D.C.. Following Trump's first-day order, the State Department stopped issuing passports with an X marker or a sex marker that differs from the one assigned at birth. A federal judge blocked the policy; on November 6, 2025, the Supreme Court let it take effect while the case continues. Transgender travelers now carry a federal document that outs them at every border crossing.
Sources: Reuters via GV Wire; AP via 6abc.
Three tweets ban transgender Americans from the military
July 26, 2017 · His administration's policy
Twitter. Without telling the Pentagon in advance, Trump announced in a string of tweets that the government would no longer accept or allow transgender people to serve in any capacity. Thousands of transgender troops were already serving openly. The ban took effect in 2019 after court fights, was reversed in 2021, and returned with his second term.
Sources: Task & Purpose; American Oversight.
Protections for transgender students revoked
February 2017 · His administration's policy
United States. Trump revoked Obama-era protections for transgender students that had allowed them to use bathrooms matching their gender identity. Researchers have since linked anti-trans policies to worse mental health among transgender young people. More on this above.
Sources: NPR.
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