By Kolawole Ojebisi
United States President-elect, Donald Trump has reiterated his resolve to repeal laws supporting LGBTQ rights in the United States.
This is as he vowed to “stop the transgender lunacy” on day one of his presidency.
Trump is envisaging an easy implementation of anti-LGBTQ laws as Republicans set to control both chambers of Congress and the White House.
“I will sign executive orders to end child sexual mutilation, get transgender out of the military and out of our elementary schools and middle schools and high schools,” the president-elect said at an event for young conservatives in Phoenix, Arizona.
He also vowed to “keep men out of women’s sports,” adding that “it will be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female.”
Speaking to the AmericaFest conference in one of the battleground states he carried in the November election, Trump further promised tough measures against “migrant crime” and doubled down on his vows to restore US control of the Panama Canal.
Transgender issues have roiled US politics in recent years, as Democratic- and Republican-controlled states have moved in opposite directions on policies such as medical treatment and what books on the topic are allowed in public or school libraries.
Last week, when the US Congress approved its annual defense budget, it included a provision to block funding of some gender-affirming care for the transgender children of service members.
In his speech Sunday, which amounted to something of a victory lap, Trump made expansive promises for his second term — and drew a dark picture of the four years preceding it, under President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the latter of whom he defeated in the 2024 election.
“On January 20, the United States will turn the page forever on four long, horrible years of failure, incompetence, national decline, and we will inaugurate a new era of peace, prosperity and national greatness,” Trump said, referring to his swearing-in.
Trump also reiterated his commitment to end the three-year old war between Ukraine and Russia but didn’t reveal the strategy to be adopted to achieve his intention.
“I will end the war in Ukraine. I will stop the chaos in the Middle East, and I will prevent, I promise, World War III.”
