Karoline Leavitt’s Complete Track Record on LGBTQ Issues and on Other Minority Groups
As a staunch Trump loyalist, Leavitt’s personal views on the LGBTQ community reflect those of America’s far-right politicians.
At 27 years old, Karoline Leavitt is the youngest White House Press Secretary ever. Before assuming this role, she interned at Fox News, worked as an Assistant Press Secretary to Kayleigh McEnany during Trump’s first term and ran to become a New Hampshire Congresswoman. Though she ultimately lost her bid for Congress, she gained national attention for her far-right policies, which included an unapologetic denial of the 2020 presidential election results. While Leavitt has never advocated in favor of or against marriage equality, she approaches the trans and nonbinary community with vitriol.
Here’s a comprehensive track record of Leavitt’s comments and actions related to the LGBTQ community and other minority groups.
Run for Congress as a New Hampshire Republican
Aug. 24, 2021
In an interview with NHJournal, Leavitt expresses concerns about local Black Lives Matter (BLM) Chair of the Board of Directors Andres Mejia becoming the Exeter school system’s director of diversity, equity and inclusion.
She discredits BLM and says, “I’m very concerned that we have someone who is part of a Marxist terrorist organization sitting in a position of power in our school system.”
Leavitt goes on to say that “Critical Race Theory [CRT] is a racist ideology that divides us based on our skin color. … It reverses what heroes like Martin Luther King fought for. … It is evil to teach young children to view each other differently based on what we look like.”
Sept. 29, 2022
Leavitt holds a press conference outside West High School in Manchester, New Hampshire. She demands that public schools “out” LGBTQ students to their families. “Families should always be informed about their children,” says Leavitt. “We should not be allowing bureaucrats and politicians to stand in the way of the family unit.”
In response, Granite State Progress, a New Hampshire-based progressive advocacy organization, releases an article titled “LGBTQ+ Advocates and Moms Speak Out Against CD 1 Republican Candidate Karoline Leavitt Targeting LGBTQ+ Youth.” In it, they challenge Leavitt’s claims, stating she is “directly interfer[ing] in parent-child relationships and could put some Granite State students at risk for harm.”
March 30, 2022
In an interview with right-wing cable news commentary channel Newsmax, Leavitt vehemently supports Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill which originally passed into law in March 2022. In its latest iteration, the law bans public school districts from teaching about sexual orientation or gender identity until the 12th grade.
“Ron DeSantis is … ensuring that our young children … are not being taught this crap. … China and Russia and our adversaries around the world are not teaching their children about who is gay and being transgender and all this other bologna,” says Leavitt. “They are teaching them math, arithmetic, reading and writing. … Quite frankly this is a national security risk.”
September 2022
During her campaign for New Hampshire Republican 1st Congressional District, Leavitt repeats lies that the presidential election was stolen. “I consistently continue to be the only candidate in this race who says that I believe the 2020 election was undoubtedly stolen from President Trump,” Leavitt says in a debate.
Sept. 13, 2022
Leavitt’s campaign to become the youngest congresswoman in history is met with vehement opposition. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), the official campaign arm for the Democrats in the House of Representatives, issues a press release titled “The Case Against Karoline Leavitt.” In it, DCCC Chairman Sean Patrick Maloney says Leavitt is “a radical MAGA Republican who is unprepared and ill-equipped to represent the Granite State.
Her lies about the 2020 election and her agenda to ban abortion, cut Social Security, and repeal the Affordable Care Act are too extreme for New Hampshire.”
Nov. 8, 2022
Leavitt loses her congressional race to U.S. Representative Chris Pappas for New Hampshire's 1st Congressional District.
Spokesperson for Make America Great Again Inc.
Aug. 14, 2023
Leavitt writes an op-ed for the British newspaper The Telegraph titled “Why young women like me love Donald Trump.” In the piece, she agrees with Trump’s calls for federal funding cuts to any schools that aim to teach critical race theory, gender ideology, “or other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content to our children.”
She adds, “It’s mothers who are now often confronted with the insane leftist ideologies about race and gender in the curriculums of America’s public schools, poisoning the minds of their young children.”
She goes on to write that President Joe Biden’s “support for transgender-identified men in women’s sports, bathrooms, and locker rooms is … insulting to women. These policies are implemented in the name of progressive ideology, but they have only regressed our society to the days before Title IX was signed into law – a law that prohibited sex-based discrimination for federally-funded educational centers, facilitating a boom in women’s sport."
July 2024
During the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Leavitt is asked whether Trump would address LGBTQ issues in his speech. In response, she says Trump "continues to fight and win for all Americans." She adds in a statement that “President Trump is leading the most diverse political movement in history. … It’s disappointing to see the divisive hateful rhetoric coming out of the Democrat Party while President Trump talks about bringing our country together and making life better for Americans.”
November 2024
The Times of India reports that Leavitt is described in her home state’s political circles as “KKKaroline” for her far-right views. This nickname was adopted and used by many folks on social media.
In an email to NBC News about whether the Trump administration would try to overturn marriage equality laws, Leavitt says, “President Trump will be a president for ALL Americans and wants to unify our country through success,” adding that rolling back same-sex marriage laws “was never a campaign promise that he made.”
Jan. 21, 2025
At Trump’s inaugural prayer service, Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde looks Trump in the eye and says, “In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now. … There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and independent families. Some who fear for their lives.”
In response, Leavitt lashes out at the Bishop on Fox News: “I was there with President Trump and everybody there was shocked and mortified by the disturbing comments from this bishop, who chose to weaponize the pulpit. She had an opportunity to pray over the President and the Vice President and their families who were sitting in the first pews, and she spoke about truth, which was very ironic, because words later, she spewed lies.”
Jan. 28, 2025
In her debut as Trump’s White House Press Secretary, Leavitt attacks so-called transgenderism and “wokeness.” Leavitt describes Trump’s executive order—that erases the idea that trans people exist in the eyes of the federal government—as a restoration of “sanity” in the face of “wokeness.” She adds that Trump plans to cut all funding for trans-related issues. “It means no more funding for transgenderism and wokeness across our federal bureaucracy and agencies.”
Jan. 31, 2025
After 64 people are killed on an American Airlines flight that collided with a Blackhawk Helicopter in Washington, DC, Leavitt blames Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) for issues related to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). In a press conference, she says the FAA was putting DEI hiring efforts over the merits and skills of potential candidates. She adds that Trump has put an end to DEI hiring practices at the FAA. It should be noted that no evidence has been found that DEI hiring in the FAA has caused an increase in accidents.
February 2025
Leavitt falsely claims that the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) provided a $32,000 grant to help fund a "transgender comic book" in Peru. “Through USAID, over the past several years, these are some of the insane priorities that that organization has been spending money on. … $32,000 for a transgender comic book in Peru. I don’t about you, but as an American taxpayer, I don’t want my dollars going towards this crap.”
Snopes later revealed Leavitt’s claims are false. While the U.S. Department of State's Diplomatic and Consular Programs—not USAID—did provide a $32,000 grant covering part of or all of the funding for the second of three issues of a Peruvian comic book series about a band of superheroes as part of a student cultural exchange program between the U.S. and Peru, the issue featured no transgender characters.
Feb. 5, 2025
In a press briefing, Leavitt says trans women will not compete in women's sports during the 2028 Olympics. "[Trump] does expect the Olympic committee and the NCAA to no longer allow men to compete in women's sports. ... The policy of this administration is that there are only two sexes: male and female. Pretty simple."
Leavitt expresses fear for both young women and girls. "I think kids have already been exposed to discrimination, especially young women and girls who have been forced to shower in locker rooms with biological men, who have been forced to compete on playing fields with biological men, which is incredibly unfair and unsafe, and again, an incredibly unpopular policy with the American people."
Feb. 6, 2025
In an interview with The National News Desk, Leavitt calls on Congress to codify Trump's executive order that would ban trans women from competing in women’s sports at the high school and collegiate levels. “With President Trump’s executive order, and hopefully soon further legislation by Congress that the president would sign into law, this will no longer be allowed to take place,” says Leavitt.
In a press conference that same day, Leavitt speaks about how the Trump administration is cutting “a long list of crap” put in place by the Biden administration, including “$2 million for sex changes in Guatemala.” This claim is misleading: The grant was awarded to an LGBTQ rights group, Asociación Lambda, and is intended to be used for a variety of gender-affirming healthcare including hormone therapy, mental health therapy, surgeries and speech therapy. Only $350,000 has been given so far.
Feb. 12, 2025
Leavitt disregards Mexican people and their heritage by saying the Gulf of Mexico is in fact the Gulf of America because Trump decrees it so. “It is a fact that the body of water off the coast of Louisiana is called the Gulf of America, and I am not sure why news outlets don’t want to call it that, but that is what it is.”
Additional reporting by Spencer Macnaughton
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Fascists, like all stupid people, lack the cognitive infrastructure to comprehend their own stupidity and the very real limitations it imposes upon them.
Kkkaroline is a classical case in point.