Civil rights group calls Trump’s demand to add anti-trans language to voting bill ‘weak and desperate’

The nation’s most influential LGBTQ+ civil rights group is accusing President Donald Trump of trying to turn transgender Americans into political leverage as he pressures Congress to pass a controversial voting bill.

Keep up with the latest in LGBTQ+ news and politics. Sign up for The Advocate's email newsletter.

In a statement Tuesday, the Human Rights Campaign sharply criticized Trump’s demand that the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, known as the SAVE Act, include provisions targeting trans people. The president has threatened to refuse to sign other legislation until the bill reaches his desk.

The SAVE Act would require Americans registering to vote in federal elections to provide documentary proof of U.S. citizenship, such as a passport or birth certificate, and would impose stricter voter identification requirements. Republicans argue the bill is necessary to prevent noncitizen voting, though such voting is already illegal, and documented cases are exceedingly rare.

Related: Donald Trump refuses to sign new laws until SAVE Act voting bill passes with added anti-trans provisions

Related: As LGBTQ+ people go back into the closet under Trump, the Human Rights Campaign reveals plan to fight back

Over the weekend, Trump praised gay conservative activist Scott Pressler for discussing the legislation on Fox & Friends and urged lawmakers to pass the bill immediately. In the same message, he called for the legislation to include additional provisions banning transgender women from women’s sports and restricting gender-affirming medical care for minors.

The demand, critics say, grafts a familiar cultural fight onto a bill ostensibly about election administration.

“Donald Trump is flailing and has never been more out of touch with what the American public wants or needs,” said Laurel Powell, communications director at the Human Rights Campaign. The bill itself, she said, threatens the voting rights of people who have legally changed their names, including many married women and transgender Americans.

Powell argued that the effort to attach anti-trans provisions reflects a broader strategy to mobilize political support through attacks on a small and vulnerable minority.

Related: How the SAVE Act would make it harder for trans people, married women, and some men to vote

Related: How the Republicans’ SAVE America Act will disenfranchise married & LGBTQ+ Americans

“Now, as gas prices rise, job losses roll in, and he prosecutes an illegal war in the Middle East, Donald Trump is trying to tack on attacks on trans people in the mistaken belief that it will make the rest of it any less rotten,” she said.

The House has already passed a version of the SAVE Act, though the bill faces a far less certain path in the Senate.

“As voters proved in November, they are seeing through these anti-equality attacks that do nothing to lower prices, provide health care, or protect our families,” Powell said, adding, “It’s giving weak and desperate.”