The guardrails of democracy may have buckled, but they’re not broken—yet. In the days since former President Donald Trump’s reelection, high-profile allies of the president-elect have boldly confirmed what many suspected: Project 2025, the conservative blueprint to undo decades of progress on LGBTQ+ rights, reproductive freedoms, climate protections, and social equality, is not just a concept. It’s the agenda.
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For months, Trump’s campaign downplayed connections to the 900-page plan, crafted by The Heritage Foundation, which proposes a radical remaking of American governance under a second Trump administration. Now, Trump allies, buoyed by victory, are openly touting Project 2025 as a roadmap to implement sweeping changes to civil rights, LGBTQ+ protections, and progressive policies.
Steve Bannon, former Trump adviser and podcast host, didn’t waste time celebrating. Fresh out of prison, Bannon enthusiastically held up a copy of the project on his War Room podcast, proclaiming it as a conservative triumph. “Now that the election is over I think we can finally say that yeah actually Project 2025 is the agenda. Lol,” wrote commentator Matt Walsh in a post shared widely by Trump allies on X, formerly Twitter. Bannon declared that the project should be spread “everywhere.”
The reality of Project 2025’s aims is alarming, especially for marginalized communities. Among its directives, the project calls for reversing the landmark Bostock v. Clayton County ruling, which protects LGBTQ+ Americans from workplace discrimination. By erasing these protections, Project 2025 would allow workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, eroding gains in employment, housing, and health care. Additionally, it proposes banning transgender Americans from the military, disbanding the White House Gender Policy Council, and prioritizing policies that bolster “traditional family values,” effectively sidelining diverse family structures, including the families of same-sex couples.
Republican officials are embracing the project’s punitive tone with zeal. Bo French, a Texas GOP official who has previously come under fire for using slurs against LGBTQ+ people, declared on social media, “Can we admit now that we are going to implement Project 2025?”
Project 2025’s proposals extend beyond LGBTQ+ rights, targeting reproductive health, civil rights, and environmental protections. It proposes a nationwide ban on abortion pills, surveillance on abortion access, climate policy rollbacks, and religious exemptions that enable discrimination in the workplace and other public services. As a conservative manifesto, the plan envisions a federal government remade to enforce hardline social policies while diminishing rights and protections for vulnerable communities.
LGBTQ+ advocacy groups and civil rights organizations are sounding the alarm.
Human Rights Campaign national press secretary Brandon Wolf saw Walsh’s post as a clarion call.
“Matt Walsh is just saying what’s been clear from the start: Project 2025 and the Trump agenda are one and the same. The threat posed by Donald Trump and his playbook of hate has always been real. Now, it’s going to be up to us to resist it at every turn,” Wolf told The Advocate.
Executive director of Advocates for Transgender Equality Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen discussed the reality of the Republican agenda in an interview with The Advocate. He said Project 2025’s open acknowledgment has only confirmed what he and others feared. “They denied it and denied it, but we see that we were right all along. This is absolutely their plan,” he said. The project’s promises, now fully embraced by Trump’s allies, reflect a retributive agenda targeting the progress achieved by LGBTQ+ Americans and other vulnerable groups, he said.
Heng-Lehtinen called it an “outrageous” plan and acknowledged that the fear folks are having is real. “People are scared, and it’s understandable,” he said, affirming A4TE’s commitment to supporting the LGBTQ+ community through this challenging period.
“Our community has been through times like this before. We know how to fight back,” he said, calling on LGBTQ+ people to take a beat, process the fear, and then mobilize for what promises to be a long battle.
