Rubio, RFK Jr., Hegseth, Bondi, Noem, McMahon, Bessent & Wiles: Complete Track Records on LGBTQ Issues for Trump's Starting Lineup
As Donald Trump’s second administration takes shape, what have his picks done throughout their careers regarding LGBTQ issues? Here are complete track records for eight of his key players.
Marco Rubio
Trump Administration Position: Secretary of State
Status: Confirmed, 1/21/2025
Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives
2006
In an interview with the Tallahassee Democrat, Marco Rubio describes his opposition for gay adoption in Florida. “Kids should not be forced to be part of some social experiment,” he tells the paper.
United States Senator
March 2013
During a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Rubio tells the crowd, "Just because I believe that states should have the right to define marriage in the traditional way does not make me a bigot.”
December 2015
In an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network during his presidential run, Rubio says—if elected—he would appoint anti-gay-marriage justices to the Supreme Court, roll back Obama-era executive actions that protect LGBTQ people and undo laws that protect trans people’s right to use the bathroom that matches their gender identity.
February 2016
At a campaign rally in New Hampshire, Rubio says, “Marriage should be between one man and one woman.”
August 2016
Rubio is under fire by LGBTQ advocacy groups for speaking with the Anti-Gay Florida Renewal group.
August 2017
Two months after the Pulse nightclub shooting that left 49 people dead, Rubio asks evangelicals to show compassion to LGBTQ people. "I want to be clear with you: Abandoning judgment and loving our LGBT neighbors is not a betrayal of what the Bible teaches. It is a fulfillment of it," he says.
March 2022
Rubio defends Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which bans teachings of anything related to LGBTQ issues in pre-kindergarten through eighth-grade classrooms. “Raising kids is the job of parents and families, not schools. And so that’s what that bill does,” he says.
June 2022
Ahead of a “Drag Queen Story Time” set to be hosted by the United States Air Force Base, Rubio sends a letter requesting its cancellation. “Decisions over children and their bodies should be left to moms and dads serving our nation, not mediated through publicly funded propaganda on U.S. Air Force bases … The last thing parents serving their nation overseas should be worried about … is whether their children are being exposed to sexually charged content." The event is ultimately cancelled largely because of pressure from Rubio.
September 2022
An ad for Rubio’s Senate reelection campaign features a video of a drag performer reading to children, overlaid by Rubio saying, “The radical left will destroy children if we don’t stop them … They indoctrinate children, try to turn boys into girls.”
October 2022
Rubio receives a 0/100 score on the Human Rights Campaign’s Congressional Scorecard.
“Sen. Marco Rubio is one of the most anti-LGBTQ politicians in America and a threat to every LGBTQ person in Florida,” says Human Rights Campaign National Campaign Director Geoff Wetrosky.
November 2022
Rubio votes against the Respect for Marriage Act, a law that codifies same-sex marriages. The law was introduced by President Biden amid worries that the conservative majority on the Supreme Court that took away the right to abortion will target same-sex marriage in the future.
January 2025
Following an executive order signed by Trump that declares there are only two genders, newly confirmed Secretary of State Marco Rubio instructs his staff to freeze all passport applications with “X” sex markers and changes to gender identity. “The policy of the United States is that an individual’s sex is not changeable,” an email from the State Department read. “Sex and not gender shall be used” in official documents. The policy affects both current and future passport applications.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.,
Trump Administration Position: Health and Human Services Secretary
Status: Not yet confirmed. First confirmation hearing set for 1/29/2025
Environmental Lawyer
January 2011
RFK Jr. takes part in the Human Rights Campaign’s “New Yorkers for Marriage Equality” video series. RJK Jr. says, “This is the last vestige of institutionalized bigotry that’s left in this country, and we need to get rid of it.”
June 29, 2023
RFK Jr. defends his support for LGBTQ rights at a town hall meeting in Charleston, South Carolina: “I don’t agree with anybody who says we shouldn’t respect gay rights,” he says. “If you’re an American, you have those rights, and everybody should respect them, and I’m going to do everything I can to make sure those are protected, and I always have, my whole life.”
June 2023
On right-wing media commentator Jordan Peterson’s podcast, RFK Jr. discusses endocrine disruptors in the water being the potential cause of young people becoming trans. “I think a lot of the problems we see in kids, and particularly boys, it’s probably underappreciated how much of that is coming from chemical exposures, including a lot of sexual dysphoria … They’re swimming through a soup of toxic chemicals today. And many of those are endocrine disruptors.”
On Joe Rogan’s podcast, RFK Jr. suggests that poppers could be the cause of the transmission of AIDS. He promotes a Peter H. Duesberg theory, who is a prominent AIDS denialist. “HIV … was a kind of free rider that was also associated with overlapping lifestyle exposures,” RFK Jr. tells Rogan. In reference to Duesberg and other AIDS denialists, RFK Jr. says, “They argued that the initial signals of AIDS, Kaposi’s sarcoma and Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia, were both strongly linked to amyl nitrite — “poppers” — a popular drug among promiscuous gays.”
July 2023
RFK Jr. says in an interview with Fox Carolina News, “I think anyone who is transgender should be respected. … But I also think parents should have the final say.”
Democratic representative from Virginia, Gerald E. Connolly, holds a hearing to discuss RFK Jr.’s beliefs that are “vile, disgusting, racist, bigoted, antisemitic, anti-gay, anti-science and riddled with conspiracy theories. … By promoting Mr. Kennedy, Republicans are deliberately providing a platform to amplify hate speech.”
May 2024
At a campaign rally in Austin, Texas, RFK Jr. opposes gender-affirming care and backs a ban on certain treatments for minors, including puberty blockers and hormone therapy.
Pete Hegseth
Trump Administration Position: Defense Secretary
Status: Confirmed, 1/24/2025
Early Life
April 2002
While Pete Hegseth serves as publisher of Princeton’s conservative campus newspaper, The Princeton Tory, an editor’s note titled “The Rant” outlines the publication’s anti-gay views. “The movement to legitimize the homosexual lifestyle and homosexual marriages is strong and must be vigorously opposed … Homosexuals themselves should not be demonized; however, their lifestyle deserves absolutely no special legal status.”
September 2002
The Princeton Tory ranters express concerns about newspaper coverage of gay weddings. “At what point does the paper deem a ‘relationship’ unfit for publication? What if we ‘loved’ our sister and wanted to marry her? Or maybe two women at the same time? A 13-year-old? The family dog?”
Political Commentator for Fox News
June 4, 2024
In his book, “The War on Warriors,” Hegseth criticizes the repeal of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.” He also writes unfavorably about gay people serving in the military, arguing that their inclusion reflects a “Marxist agenda” that prioritizes social justice over combat readiness: “Not because I have a newfound ax to grind with gay Americans … But because I naïvely believed that’s what ending Don’t Ask Don’t Tell was all about. Once again, our good faith was used against us. The Left never gives an inch and always takes a mile.”
Jan. 14, 2025
During Hegseth’s Senate confirmation hearing, Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand grills him about his contentious views about gays serving in the military. Gillibrand also condemns Hegseth’s suggestion that addressing LGBTQ inclusion undermines the military. “To denigrate LGBTQ service members is a mistake,” she says.
In response, Hegseth says, “Senator, as the President has stated, I don’t disagree with the overturn of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
Pam Bondi
Trump Administration Position: Attorney General
Status: Not yet confirmed
Prosecutor
August 2010
At a forum sponsored by the anti-LGBTQ Christian Family Coalition, Pam Bondi pledges to oppose gay marriage as attorney general of Florida. In an email to Politifact clarifying her position, Bondi says, “As Florida’s next attorney general, I will vigorously defend [the] law banning gay adoption in our state.”
Attorney General of Florida
May 2014
Bondi submits a request to a federal judge asking for a marriage equality case, which would allow same-sex Floridians the right to marry, to be thrown out. She says forcing Florida to recognize same-sex marriages would impose “public harm” and “create significant problems for the state’s pension and health insurance program.”
August 2014
Bondi files a motion to freeze an appeal by six same-sex couples challenging Florida’s ban on gay marriage.
December 2014
Tampa Bay Times, Florida’s largest daily newspaper, names Bondi “loser of the year” and compares her to a modern-day Anita Bryant because of her “relentless defense of Florida's gay marriage ban.”
June 2016
Bondi oversees the investigation of the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando, where 49 people were murdered. In an interview with Anderson Cooper, Bondi says, “People right now who are partners, who aren’t married, officially, aren’t able to get information. So we are trying to assist them in getting information.” In response, Cooper challenges Bondi: “Had there been no gay marriage … you do realize that boyfriends and girlfriends of the dead would not be able to get information and would not be able to probably get a visit in the hospital here. Isn’t there a sick irony in that?”
October 2017
In an ideological pivot, Bondi backs the Florida Competitive Workforce Act, which prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. “I haven’t read the bill, but of course, it’s something that I would support,” she says. Three years later, the bill dies.
Private Citizen, Registered Foreign Agent and Lobbyist for the Qatari Embassy
August 2023
In a Fox News interview with Sean Hannity, Bondi compares LGBTQ youth who are out at school but not to their parents to hiding that they were sexually abused or that they are struggling with heroin addiction.
U.S. Attorney General Nominee
January 2025
During her Senate Confirmation hearing to become President Trump’s attorney general, Democratic Senator Adam Schiff asks Bondi if she will defend and respect marriage equality. “I will respect the law. Absolutely,” she says.
Kristi Noem
Trump Administration Position: Secretary of Homeland Security
Status: Confirmed, 1/25/2025
South Dakota House Representative
June 2015
In reaction to Hodges v Obergfell, Kristi Noem releases a statement saying she disagrees with the ruling and that she “believes marriage is a special bond between a man and a woman.” In 2022, she doubles down during a roundtable discussion with Young America’s Foundation. “[I have] never supported gay marriage. … A lot of my faith has to do with that.”
Governor of South Dakota
March 2021
Noem supports HB 1217, a bill that would bar transgender girls and women from playing on female sports teams. However, she later vetoes the bill, fearing a legal battle with the NCAA. “The NCAA is a private association. That means they can do what they want to do. And even though I fundamentally disagree with them when it comes to this issue, if South Dakota passes a law that’s against their policy, they will likely take punitive action against us.”
In response to backlash from her veto, Noem signs two executive orders that ban transgender girls and women from participating on women’s sports teams in public high schools and colleges across South Dakota.
Also in March, Noem signs the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which allows discrimination against LGBTQ people on the grounds of religious beliefs.
February 2022
Noem signs an anti-trans bill into law that effectively bans transgender students from playing on the sports team that matches their gender identity.
February 2023
Noem signs HB 1080, which bans age-appropriate and medically necessary gender-affirming care for youth in South Dakota, into law.
February 2024
The Transformation Project, a trans advocacy organization that was working on a government project in South Dakota, comes to a legal settlement with Noem and her health secretary after the state had unfairly terminated a contract with them based on what they called “national politics.” South Dakota publicly apologizes and pays $300,000 to the trans advocates.
Linda McMahon
Trump Administration Position: Secretary of Education
Status: Not yet confirmed
WWE President and CEO
1980-2009
Linda McMahon, who co-founded the WWE with her husband Vince McMahon, pushes several homophobic and transphobic storylines on their programs, some of which include queer-coded fighters who perpetuate stereotypes that gay men are predatory and other wrestlers who shout transphobic slurs.
Senate Candidate
2010
While running to become a Republican senator in Connecticut, McMahon supports the Defense of Marriage Act, a federal law that denies same-sex couples the benefits and recognition given to heterosexual couples.
October 2012
On the campaign trail, McMahon flips and says, “I absolutely support America’s law for same-sex marriage.” She claims her position on the issue has “been evolving.”
PAC Leader
September 2021
McMahon serves as the head of the America First Policy Institute, which penned the America First Agenda, a competing version of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025. On its site, the institute publishes articles denouncing trans rights, including one titled “Radical Gender Ideology is Transforming American Society, and AFPI is Fighting Back.”
March 2024
McMahon writes a Fox News Op-Ed criticizing President Biden’s proposed diversity, equity and inclusion mandates.
U.S. Secretary of Education Nominee
November 2024
The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, GLSEN, releases a statement in response to McMahon’s nomination for Education Secretary: “McMahon’s lack of expertise in education, paired with Trump’s focus on so-called ‘parents’ rights’ and ‘school choice,’ signals a continued push to strip critical protections for LGBTQ+ students and historically marginalized communities.”
Scott Bessent
Trump Administration Position: Treasury Secretary
Status: Confirmed, 1/27/2025
Early Life
1995
At 17, Bessent wants to attend the U.S. Naval Academy after his father faces financial hardship. However, Bessent is unwilling to lie about his sexual orientation, so he is not allowed to enroll in the program because it is still following “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” laws.
1990s-2000s
Bessent sits on the board of God’s Love We Deliver, a nonprofit founded in the 1980s that helps deliver meals to people with HIV/AIDS. (Exact dates not known)
Bessent openly supports the Elton John AIDS Foundation. (Exact dates not known)
U.S. Treasury Department Nominee
Nov. 24, 2024
Trump nominates Bessent to lead the U.S. Treasury Department, making him the first openly LGBTQ person nominated for the position and putting him on track to make history as the nation's highest-ever ranking LGBTQ official.
Jan. 21, 2025
Bessent’s nomination advances past a key Senate committee, teeing up his likely confirmation with a full floor vote in the coming days.
Susie Wiles
Trump Administration Position: Chief of Staff
Status: Assumed Office 1/20/2025 (Not Required to Face Confirmation)
Campaigner Susie Wiles
1980
Susie Wiles works as a scheduler for Ronald Reagan’s presidential campaign. The Reagan administration would go on to be hostile towards LGBTQ people during the HIV/AIDS epidemic, in which 89,343 Americans died from the virus during his presidency.
2018
Wiles helps run Ron DeSantis’ gubernatorial campaign. The DeSantis administration would go on to pass a bevy of anti-LGBTQ legislation, including the infamous so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law.
PAC Leader Wiles
September 2022
As CEO of Donald Trump’s Save America political action committee, Wiles oversees a $1 million donation to the America First Policy Institute, a group that has published numerous anti-trans articles and policy proposals.
2024
Former mayor of Jacksonville, John Delaney, says in an interview, “[Wiles] would be what I’d call left on LGBT+ issues, and I can’t believe she would necessarily agree naturally with Donald Trump on immigration, but that’s more me speculating.”
Additional reporting by Sam Donndelinger.
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This remark is not a defense of these nasty folks, but if we go far enough back into history, you could find plenty of Democrats with equivalent views. Our only true friends are us.