Trump continues pushing transphobic rhetoric during presidential debate

The Sept. 10 presidential debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris featured no questions about LGBTQ issues, but the Republican nominee still found a way to denigrate both transgender individuals and immigrants in one sentence  — just as he has done throughout the course of this campaign cycle.

At one point during the debate, Trump attempted to attack Harris over her answer to a question in a 2019 American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) questionnaire when she was a candidate in a crowded Democratic primary race for president. The questionnaire intended to shed light on whether Democratic candidates at the time would use their executive authority as president to ensure incarcerated individuals had access to gender-affirming care. Harris answered the question in the affirmative and stressed that it was important for transgender people to receive necessary care when in state custody.

“I will direct all federal agencies responsible for providing essential medical care to deliver transition treatment,” Harris wrote.

The questionnaire’s contents reemerged days before the Harris-Trump debate when CNN highlighted the vice president’s answer to the question. During the debate, Trump sought to highlight Harris’ answer.

“Now she wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison,” Trump said during the debate, using offensive terminology to refer to undocumented immigrants. “This is a radical left liberal that would do this.”

A Harris campaign spokesperson told Fox News on Sept. 10 that the “questionnaire is not what she is proposing or running on,” but did not indicate a position otherwise.

Harris’ law enforcement record was an issue among many progressive Democrats during the 2020 race when she was embroiled in a competitive Democratic primary. She faced criticism during that campaign for a decision she made as California attorney general when she rejected a request from Michelle Lael-Norsworthy, an incarcerated transgender woman, who sought to undergo gender-affirming surgery. Harris later tried to distance herself from that case, saying she would have preferred if her staff consulted with her before taking action in the case. She was strongly supportive of transgender rights as a US senator and has been an LGBTQ ally during her time as vice president.

Trump’s comments about gender-affirming care for incarcerated individuals drew such incredulity from viewers watching at home that social media platforms immediately became hotbeds of memes poking fun at the former president. Many of the memes also seized on other false conspiracy theories echoed by Trump, including when he said Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio were eating dogs and cats.

However, Trump’s threats to the LGBTQ community are no joke — and his rhetoric at the debate represented just the latest in a string of dehumanizing statements he has made about transgender individuals on the campaign trial. He has also perpetuated nonsensical narratives about transgender individuals undergoing gender-affirming surgery in school.

“Can you imagine you’re a parent and your son leaves the house and you say, ‘Jimmy, I love you so much, go have a good day in school,’ and your son comes back with a brutal operation?” Trump said at a rally in Wisconsin Sept. 7. “Can you even imagine this? What the hell is wrong with our country?”

Trump’s rhetoric is backed up by his record of rolling back LGBTQ rights during his first term as president. Trump, among other actions, nixed LGBTQ health protections, barred trans troops from serving in the military, sued transgender student-athletes simply for playing sports in accordance with their gender identity, and gave states like South Carolina waivers to allow taxpayer-funded foster care agencies to reject same-sex parents from adopting children.