Donald Trump decided to discuss the possibility of his running for president again by launching a disgusting attack on LGBTQ people during a speech at the America First Policy Institute’s first annual summit Monday, LGBTQNation [1] reports.
He touched on the hot topic that’s taking up far too many words for all the wrong reasons — the “sexualization of minor children” while blaming LGBTQ people for this.
“Federal, state, and local government should aggressively enforce existing statutes to stop the perverted sexualization of minor children,” he told the crowd. “You have the statutes.”
The phrase “the sexualization of minor children” has turned into a political dog-whistle and right-wingers have latched on to it to use every opportunity to misconstrue LGBTQ identities, especially in regard to children. The right frequently likes to use this phrase when targeting teachers for discussing this, or when school libraries make available such LGBTQ books as And Tango Makes Three — a story about a baby penguin with two dads.
This phrase is also used to target supportive parents who don’t make their kids follow gender rules surrounding clothing, or parents who support their children’s identities.
Trump didn’t elaborate on which statutes prevent kids “from reading about gay penguins or teens from accessing life-saving healthcare,” [2] LGBTQNation reports.
“The society that refuses to protect its children is a society that will soon not be able to protect anybody,” Trump said. “This is a hallmark of cultural and social decay against which we should fight back very hard and very soon we don’t have time to wait years to do this.”
Of course, I wonder how many mothers had to protect their teen daughters against Trump, especially since he liked barging in on them while they were dressing during [3] beauty pageants.
Then Trump said something unusual—something he should probably say every time he talks: He said he didn’t really know what he was talking about.
“The sickos who are pushing sexual content in kindergartens or providing puberty blockers to young children who have no idea what a puberty blocker is — neither do I, by the way, neither do most of the people in the audience as you smile,” the former president said.
While admitting he doesn’t know anything about puberty blockers, he denounced them anyway.
“Let’s just say they’re not good — are not engaged in acts of depravity in many cases they are breaking the law and they should be held fully accountable,” Trump said.
But the fact is, puberty blockers are good — at least one study published in the scientific journal Pediatrics, [4] has shown they reduce suicidal ideations in transgender people. This is not about “acts of depravity,” this is about saving lives.
Trump is, however, impervious to logic and devoid of any human decency so he launched into an ad-libbed rant about transgender women in sports. He probably thought he was being clever because his mind only has two speeds: ramble, sometimes incoherently, or rant.
“By the way, we should not allow men to play in women’s sports,” he said. “So crazy.”
The audience applauded enthusiastically after hearing that gem, probably because most are incapable of truly thinking for themselves.
Trump decided to elaborate further by telling a wild story about Lia Thomas, a swimmer at the University of Pennsylvania.
He described how he knew this woman — a “beautiful woman” (the only kind of woman he’s interested in, anyway), without mentioning her name. This mythical woman wanted to break an unspecified world record. So, he said, she looked at one side of the pool and saw women. On the other side, he said, there was “somebody with a man’s body, that’s what they do, they call it.”
“You know the guy, he was named ‘female athlete of the year.’ Did you know that? It’s true,” he said.
Then he said something really preposterous.
“This guy is massive, he’s got a wingspan, he’s got arms that are 30 feet long,” he said. And he of course, misgendered Thomas. “She was seriously injured during the meet because he swam so fast that he gave her major wind burn as he went by. She didn’t break the record but he broke the record that day. You know what the number was? 38 seconds. So she wanted to break it by an eight of a second and he broke it by 38 seconds.”
I really don’t know what the hell he was saying here, do you? He bounces back and forth faster than a ping pong ball.
We can surmise he was talking about Thomas, but as LGBTQNation notes, his comments were, shall we say, a bit wide of the mark. Thomas didn’t set any record by 38 seconds; no indeed, she won a long-distance race by 38 seconds. This is not the least bit unusual for races that are longer than 15 minutes. She was also not named “female athlete of the year.” She was nominated for NCAA Woman of the Year, a title she did NOT win.
And Trump’s comments about Thomas’s arms being “30 feet long” and giving someone “wind burn,” are stupid. Even for Trump.
But wait — there’s more.
He went even more bizarro, telling the story of “Alice” a transgender weightlifter, who, he elaborated, broke the women’s world record in clean and jerk (no I don’t know what that means), which he claimed was 218 pounds.
“I can’t lift it,” he said.
Dude, you’re sweating, clearly obese, and the most exercise you get is lifting a Big Mac to your face,” so yeah, of course, you can’t lift it.
LGBTQNation Googled this mythical weightlifter and was unable to find anyone matching “Alice.” They did find Chinese weight lifter Li Wenwen, who, in 2021 broke the record for clean and jerk by lifting 411 pounds.
“It’s so disrespectful to women,” Trump said, after spending minutes mocking two women in front of the crowd. “And they say it’s politically incorrect, it’s so disrespectful.”
Yeah, well you know what’s also disrespectful? Calling women “fat pigs, dogs,” [5] and talking about Megyn Kelly bleeding from her “wherever.” [6]
Trump: "This is a hallmark of cultural and social decay against which we must fight back…sickos pushing sexual content in kindergarten or providing puberty blockers to young children…"pic.twitter.com/bL4EZcaPca [7]
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) July 26, 2022 [8]
So Trump needs to sit down and STFU.
People on Twitter were disgusted:
Trump went on a rant describing members of the LGBTQ community as “sickos who are pushing sexual content in kindergartens or providing puberty blockers to young children” implying the same people are involved in “sexualization of minor children”
Oh word? pic.twitter.com/VZhWVZSTgl [9]
— flexghost. (@flexghost1) July 27, 2022 [10]
"sickos who are pushing sexual content in kindergartens, providing puberty blockers to young children who have no idea what a puberty blocker is – neither do I, by the way." -says Trump, fondling his own daughter. pic.twitter.com/TOIchmyzx0 [11]
— Chip Franklin.com (@chipfranklin) July 27, 2022 [12]
#Trump [13] in his usual, arrogant, lying, and bombastic style declared that #LGBTQIA [14] people are "sickos" who are attempting to push sexual content on kindergartens. He even pushed a lie a la @Rep_MTG [15] style where trans women had 30-foot arms. #DementiaDonTrump [16] needs to be committed.
— David S. Polugar, 🇹🇹🇺🇦🇺🇸 Давид Полугар (@DSPolugar) July 28, 2022 [17]
Trump is telling people "sickos" are promoting sexual issues to small children and pushing "puberty blockers". Now, he's moved onto anti-trans rhetoric. He's getting applause and cheers from the audience.
— Hollisann, WHNP, FNP-C 🟦 (@hbiggsrochester) July 26, 2022 [18]
#Trump [13] (who once spoke of grabbing women “by the p****y”) wants to “stop the perverted sexualization of minor children…a hallmark of cultural and social decay.” He warns of “sickos…pushing sexual content in kindergartens or providing puberty blockers to young children.”
— PETER MAER (@petermaer) July 26, 2022 [19]