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Coffin with red roses
Opinion: Trump voters’ enabling will not be forgotten. And history, not to mention the families of the kids they helped harm, will judge them accordingly, writes John Casey.
There was a reason crisis calls from LGBTQ+ youth spiked 700 percent the night Donald Trump was elected last November. And there was a reason they soared again around the time of his inauguration. Those weren’t just coincidental stress flares. They were cries for help from young queer people who saw what was coming.
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They knew instinctively, even then, what some adults refused to admit, and that is Trump’s reemergence would unleash an all-out assault on their rights, their dignity, and their very existence.
Now the 988 crisis line that LGBTQ+ kids depend on is on the chopping block. The Biden administration helped build this resource, one that tens of thousands of queer youth rely on when they’re contemplating the unthinkable. And now, under the threat of the vindictive Trump, that support system could be gutted, its programs dedicated to LGBTQ+ youth cut with its funding drained and reallocated.
This isn’t just policy cruelty. This is a road map to guaranteed tragedy.
And if all this wasn’t enough, Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services piles on. Thursday, it released a so-called report that revives the discredited, debunked, and outright abusive practice of conversion therapy. The same “report” attacks gender-affirming care, despite overwhelming medical consensus, from every major health organization in the U.S., that such care is essential and lifesaving for transgender youth.
In 2024, Stanford University published a landmark study showing that LGBTQ+ people who are subjected to conversion practices are more than twice as likely to attempt suicide. Another recent analysis by the Williams Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles, found that denying gender-affirming care to trans youth is directly associated with severe psychological distress, increased rates of depression, and higher suicide risk.
Trump voters, you don’t get to read those statistics and shrug. You don’t get to see these lives in crisis and say, “Well, I liked Trump’s stance on inflation.” Or worse, “He’ll bring down egg prices.” These selfish, shortsighted, and dangerous reasons to support a known danger to the LGBTQ+ community are paramount to giving a death sentence to queer kids.
That’s why I wrote in February, “It’s OK to Be Angry at Trump Voters.” I meant it. And I mean it even more today. Because Trump voters are not bystanders. They are not innocent. They are not confused. They are accomplices.
They had been told, explicitly and repeatedly, what Trump planned to do, and they still signed up to help him do it.
And there is proof. Look no further than Project 2025, the far-right blueprint for Trump’s second term. It’s not just theoretical anymore. It’s policy in action. The plan outlines mass rollbacks of LGBTQ+ protections, shutdowns of civil rights offices, the criminalization of gender-affirming care, and the renormalization of conversion therapy, all with the explicit goal of “eradicating transgenderism” from public life. Does all this sound familiar?
Trump has not distanced himself from this plan. In fact, he’s following it to the letter, and he knew he always would. He lied about that, too. Didn’t know about it? He knew all about it, and apparently, he loves it.
So when Trump voters say they didn’t know, that they didn’t think he’d go that far, they are lying to themselves, or worse, lying to the tortured queer kids affected. The warnings were everywhere. The reporting was everywhere. And cruelty was always the point.
You don’t get to support a candidate whose policies will lead to dead queer kids and then cry foul when someone holds you accountable. If you voted for Trump, you endorsed a future where suicide hotlines are defunded, doctors are criminalized for providing affirming care, and LGBTQ+ kids are told by their own government that they are broken, diseased, and unworthy of love or protection.
No more “I didn’t realize.” No more “I just liked the tax cuts.” No more excuses. We are not talking about disagreements over tariffs, inflation, or immigration (which, sadly, has its own young victims). We are talking about children. We are talking about the most vulnerable among us, kids who already face bullying at school, rejection at home, and isolation online, and now being targeted by their own country.
The next time a queer kid dies by suicide, when their note references hopelessness, or fear of coming out or being denied medical care, Trump voters need to sit with that. To look in the mirror. To reckon with what they helped enable. Because they will have blood on their hands.
This is why I wrote that column in February, and since then, things have gotten worse. This is why I am writing now. The attacks on LGBTQ+ youth are accelerating. The policies are becoming more lethal. And the people responsible are not anonymous. They are your neighbors, your coworkers, your relatives, and they choose cruelty..
To the queer kids reading this, know that you are loved. You are not broken. And there are people fighting for you.
To Trump voters: the brutality you are enabling will not be forgotten. And history, not to mention the families of the kids you helped harm, will judge you accordingly.
If you or someone you know needs mental health resources and support, please call, text, or chat with the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline or visit988lifeline.org for 24/7 access to free and confidential services. Trans Lifeline, designed for transgender or gender-nonconforming people, can be reached at (877) 565-8860. The lifeline also provides resources to help with other crises, such as domestic violence situations. The Trevor Project Lifeline, for LGBTQ+ youth (ages 24 and younger), can be reached at (866) 488-7386. Users can also access chat services at TheTrevorProject.org/Help or text START to 678678.
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