By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
U.S. President Donald Trump, joined by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, takes questions during a press conference on recent Supreme Court rulings in the briefing room at the White House on June 27, 2025 in Washington, DC.
The president continues to use trans people as a scapegoat.
President Donald Trump on Friday seized on a U.S. Supreme Court ruling about nationwide injunctions by federal district court judges to renew his attacks on transgender rights and LGBTQ+ families, twisting an unrelated legal victory into a platform for his administration’s anti-LGBTQ+ agenda.
Standing in the White House press briefing room Friday, Trump celebrated the court’s 6-3 decision limiting lower federal courts from issuing nationwide injunctions — rulings that have often blocked his policies.
Keep up with the latest in LGBTQ+ news and politics. Sign up for The Advocate's email newsletter.
Flanking him were U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, two longtime loyalists. Bondi, a former Florida attorney general, rose to national prominence for defending Trump during his first impeachment trial. Blanche, now the second-ranking official at the Justice Department, previously served as Trump’s personal defense attorney in the New York state case that led to Trump’s 2024 conviction on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to cover up hush-money payments to bisexual adult film star Stormy Daniels.
Related: Donald Trump rails against transgender athletes in U of Alabama commencement speech
At Friday’s briefing, Trump praised the Supreme Court ruling, describing it as a chance to bulldoze through legal obstacles to a raft of policies, including efforts to block federal funding for gender-affirming care.
“Thanks to this decision, we can now properly file to proceed with these numerous policies and those that have been wrongly enjoined on a nationwide basis, including birthright citizenship, ending sanctuary city funding, suspending refugee resettlement, freezing unnecessary funding, stopping federal taxpayers from paying for transgender surgeries and numerous other priorities of the American people,” Trump said. “We have so many of them. I have a whole list. I’m not going to bore you.”
Related: BREAKING: Supreme Court allows Maryland parents to opt their kids out of LGBTQ+ lessons in schools
Trump appeared to reference his administration’s sweeping January executive order declaring it the policy of the United States not to “fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support” gender transition care for anyone under 19. That order sent shockwaves through hospitals and clinics nationwide, leading several to abruptly suspend care, cancel appointments, and turn away transgender patients — even those who had been receiving care for years.
The executive order quickly drew lawsuits. In March, a federal judge in Maryland granted a preliminary injunction blocking its enforcement, ruling in PFLAG v. Trump that the policy could not stand while legal challenges continued. Civil rights advocates argued the order was discriminatory and endangered the health and wellbeing of transgender youth.
At Friday’s news conference, Bondi tied the Supreme Court ruling on nationwide injunctions to another significant decision handed down the same day: Mahmoud v. Taylor. The court ruled that parents had the right to opt out of lessons about the existence of LGBTQ+ people out of religious reasons.
Related: Here are all of Trump's executive orders that have targeted transgender people — so far
That case involved parents in Maryland who sued to opt their children out of public school lessons featuring LGBTQ+ picture books that depict families with same-sex parents as part of the factual diversity of family life in the United States.
Bondi hailed the opt-out ruling as “a huge win” that “restores parents’ rights to decide their child’s education.” She claimed it would allow families to avoid what she described as “dangerous trans ideology.”
Blanche echoed Bondi’s sentiments, calling the decision “another great decision that came down today.” He argued that the ruling “restores parents’ rights to decide their child’s education,” adding: “It seems like a basic idea, but it took the Supreme Court to set the record straight, and we thank them for that. And now that ruling allows parents to opt out of dangerous trans ideology and make the decisions for their children that they believe is correct.”
Pressed by reporters about the opt-out ruling, Trump insisted it was “a great ruling for parents,” claiming families had “lost control of the schools” and that the decision was “a tremendous victory.” He added, “We will give you back your parental rights. They were taken away.”
Related: Donald Trump’s government declares that transgender and nonbinary people don’t exist
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, writing in a blistering dissent, warned that the decision “threatens the very essence of public education,” arguing it hands veto power to parents who object to curricula meant to reflect America’s diversity.
Civil rights advocates condemned the Supreme Court’s ruling in Mahmoud v. Taylor. LGBTQ+ advocates fear it could pave the way for broader censorship and further marginalization of queer youth in schools.
The Jewish Council for Public Affairs, a leading non-partisan Jewish civil rights organization, also sounded the alarm about the decision’s consequences. “SCOTUS’s ruling in Mahmoud v. Taylor sets a dangerous precedent,” the group said in a statement. “Inclusive education is essential to a safe, democratic society, and this decision risks sidelining, stigmatizing, or erasing LGBTQ+ students from the classroom.”
GLAD Law, which filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case alongside the National Center for Lesbian Rights, Family Equality, COLAGE, Free State Justice, the Human Rights Campaign, GLSEN, and The Trevor Project, emphasized that public schools have an obligation to prepare students for life in a diverse democracy.
Mary L. Bonauto, senior director of civil rights and legal strategies at GLAD Law, said the ruling doesn’t eliminate schools’ responsibility to help students succeed in an increasingly diverse society. She noted that Montgomery County’s reading curriculum — and similar programs nationwide — uses stories as “windows and mirrors,” helping children build literacy while also seeing themselves and understanding others. She stressed that LGBTQ+ people and families exist, many students have LGBTQ+ parents, and books that feature queer families shouldn’t be singled out for censorship.
“This ruling not only tells LGBTQ+ students that they don’t belong, but that their experiences and existence are less worthy of respect,” said Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, in a statement. “It’s wrong, it’s dangerous, and it’s cruel—plain and simple.”
