Trump Taps Anti-LGBTQ Matt Gaetz for Attorney General
The Florida Republican congressman has referred to the LGBTQ community as "degenerate" and has opposed pro-LGBTQ federal legislation.
President-elect Donald Trump has nominated U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz to serve as the next U.S. Attorney General.
Writing on Truth Social, Trump said that the Florida Republican “has distinguished himself in Congress through his focus on achieving desperately needed reform at the Department of Justice.”
Republicans frequently claim that the Justice Department has been weaponized against conservative Americans, citing the charges brought against various people, including prominent gay and bisexual individuals, who participated in the January 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol; the indictment and conviction on felony charges of arranging a hush-money scheme with the intent of influencing a federal election; and the pursuit of charges against the former and future president for alleged election interference.
“Few issues in America are more important than ending the partisan Weaponization of our Justice System,” Trump wrote. “Matt will end Weaponized Government, protect our Borders, dismantle Criminal Organizations and restore Americans’ badly-shattered Faith and Confidence in the Justice Department. On the House Judiciary Committee, which performs oversight of DOJ, Matt played a key role in defeating the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, and exposing alarming and systemic Government Corruption and Weaponization. He is a Champion for the Constitution and the Rule of Law.
“Matt will root out the systemic corruption at DOJ, and return the Department to its true mission of fighting Crime, and upholding our Democracy and Constitution. We must have Honesty, Integrity, and Transparency at DOJ. Under Matt’s leadership, all Americans will be proud of the Department of Justice once again.”
“It will be an honor to serve as President Trump’s Attorney General!” Gaetz, who is embroiled in alleged sex scandals and a Congressional ethics investigation, posted on X.
As Attorney General, Gaetz could choose to intervene in cases involving LGBTQ rights that head before federal courts, particularly cases accepted by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Unlike the Biden administration, it is hard to think of an instance in which Gaetz would side with LGBTQ people suing for discrimination or challenging anti-LGBTQ laws.
Gaetz has a zero rating from the LGBTQ rights organization Human Rights Campaign on its congressional scorecard and has not sponsored any pro-LGBTQ legislation since entering Congress in 2017.
He has also voted against pro-LGBTQ pieces of legislation and supported anti-LGBTQ amendments to funding bills in the House.
Gaetz was one of 157 Republicans in the U.S. House to vote against the Respect for Marriage Act, a law signed into effect by President Biden in 2022 to protect marriage rights from a potential U.S. Supreme Court decision reversing the high court’s 2015 ruling striking down various state-level bans on same-sex marriage.
Gaetz has also engaged in anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, accusing LGBTQ people of seeking to “indoctrinate” children in schools.
In defending a bill he introduced to allow school officials and students to engage in school prayer without consequences, Gaetz told The Daily Caller, “God’s reach does not stop at the schoolhouse gates. Our country’s education policy forbids students and faculty from praying while endlessly promoting degenerate LGBT and anti-White propaganda.”
Gaetz defended his state’s “Don’t Say Gay” law prohibiting LGBTQ material from being broached in classrooms, canceling college-level courses dealing with LGBTQ topics, and enabling Floridians to challenge books for removal from school and university libraries.
The congressman has cast himself as a “parental rights” advocate and last year introduced the “Parents’ Right to Know Act,” legislation that would allow parents to access their children’s school medical and counseling records.
At the recent Republican National Convention, Gaetz couldn’t resist taking a dig at the idea that a person can be transgender, stating that “[u]nder Trump, we prospered, we were richer, inflation was low, and there were two genders.”
On the campaign trail, Gaetz defended Trump’s false assertion that schools were conducting gender-affirming surgeries behind the backs of parents.
When confronted by the LGBTQ press, Gaetz sidestepped the falsehood and returned to talking points about “parental rights,” which is MAGA-speak for pushing for bans on LGBTQ content in schools.
Gaetz opposed the Equality Act, sweeping federal legislation that would prohibit instances of anti-LGBTQ discrimination, taking issue with protections for transgender people and asserting that the bill’s reliance on transgender people’s self-identification — as opposed to requiring evidence of medical transition — would lead bad actors to exploit the law for their own purposes.
As reported by The Washington Post, Gaetz claimed that while he supports the rights of transgender people and doesn’t wish to “denigrate or deny their existence or struggles,” he believed that the bill, as drafted, would only cause harm to other groups, particularly women, due to the loss of sex-segregated spaces or opportunities.
He further stated that “bad actors,” such as sex offenders, would take advantage of the law by pretending to be transgender. As an example, he cited the possibility of President Trump declaring himself the “first female president,” implying that the law’s reliance on self-identification for gender identity-based protections is flawed.
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