In November, we wrote about Project 2025, a playbook written by the conservative policy think tank Heritage Foundation. If put into action, the playbook could have dire effects on countless Americans, particularly women and the LGBTQ+ community. That article has consistently been one of the most-read pieces on the News is Out site. We want our readers to know about Project 2025 and provide ways to share your thoughts with your representatives, some of whom are already in support of this conservative directive.
In our previous article, we wrote about issues affecting the LGBTQ+ community. However, other portions of the Project 2025 playbook could affect members of the community, like reproductive rights, reversal of climate change initiatives and more. The language in Project 2025 is often vague, which can lead to the LGBTQ+ community being disproportionately affected by these proposed policies.
Reverse approval of chemical abortion drugs like mifepristone. Many LGBTQ+ people require reproductive health and abortion access. Project 2025 would direct the Food and Drug Administration to reverse the approval of mifepristone, also known as the “abortion pill.” It would also reverse course on the availability of these medicines through the mail, calling it “mail-order abortions” and a “gift to the abortion industry.”
This means that anyone with a uterus who needs access to an abortive pill would no longer have that access.
Repeal the Inflation Reduction Act, a sweeping bill promoting clean energy and reversing climate change. The IRA was signed by President Joe Biden in 2022 and addresses numerous economic issues, job creation in the clean energy sector, and slowing down climate change. However, according to Project 2025, this would be on the chopping block.
With the repeal of this act, Project 2025 would “stop the war on oil and natural gas” and end government involvement with private-sector energy companies. According to the United Nations, “75% of global greenhouse gas emissions and nearly 90% of all carbon dioxide emissions” are the result of fossil fuels.
Millions of LGBTQ+ people live in areas that are and will continue to be significantly affected by climate change, according to a report by The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Outlawing of pornography. Early in the Project 2025 playbook, the writers make it clear that LGBTQ+ people are targets of ire.
In the opening chapter, “A Promise to America” by Kevin D. Roberts, Project 2025 wastes no time addressing the community. The second paragraph contains this statement:
“Inflation is ravaging family budgets, drug overdose deaths continue to escalate, and children suffer the toxic normalization of transgender-ism with drag queens and pornography invading their school libraries.”
Project 2025 claims that pornography is not protected under the First Amendment and that “pornography should be outlawed. The people who produce and distribute it should be imprisoned. Educators and public librarians who purvey it should be classed as registered sex offenders. And telecommunications and technology firms that facilitate its spread should be shuttered.”
However, there is no definition as to what constitutes pornography according to , setting a dangerous precedent that could harm many in the LGBTQ+ community. Could Project 2025 consider pornography a drag queen dancing at an event? A book with a love scene between two same-sex individuals? An LGBTQ+ website providing news and information? The unclear nature of much of Project 2025 opens up the LGBTQ+ community to dangerous consequences.
Restoring the family as the centerpiece of American life. Despite the fact that there are millions of single-parent households and LGBTQ+ families in the U.S., this part of Project 2025 centers on traditional families.
“So many of the problems government programs are designed to solve—but can’t—are ultimately problems created by the crisis of marriage and the family,” the playbook states. “The world has never seen a thriving, healthy, free, and prosperous society where most children grow up without their married parents. If current trends continue, we are heading toward social implosion.”
Where does that leave families that don’t fit the traditional mold?
“Every threat to family stability must be confronted,” the playbook states.
Are LGBTQ+ people and families considered part of that “threat?”
According to the plan proposed by Project 2025, this playbook would launch on the first day of a second Donald Trump presidency.
To learn more about Project 2025, you can access The Project 2025 playbook for free.
To share your thoughts on Project 2025 with your representatives, you can use the Find Your Representative page through house.gov.
To contact your senator, check out the Contact My Senator page on senate.org.