Members of the LGBTQ community are expressing fear about what a second Trump administration could look like for them.


What You Need To Know

  • Persephone Harris, who identifies as a queer woman, worries about how much power the community is losing with the election of Donald Trump

  • Community activists from various LGBTQ+ organizations warn about policy decisions that go even further than Trump’s first administration

  • Trump has made anti-trans issues front and center in his campaign

  • A community townhall is planned for Wednesday, Nov. 13 at 6 p.m. at the LGBT Center in the West Village to discuss the fallout from the election

Ever since Tuesday, Persephone Harris, who identifies as a queer woman, has been asking herself a lot of questions.

“How much is my love worth to you? How much value do people like me have if we don’t fit into [the] status quo?” Harris questioned.

“It’s terrifying, I mean, as a people how much power we’re losing,” she added. “It’s disappointing, obviously.”

NY1 caught up with Harris outside of the LGBT Center, a community organization in the West Village.

“This was a very difficult and for many people dangerous moment in our country,” Trevon Mayers, the center’s senior director of advocacy and community outreach, said.

Mayers said members of the community are concerned, specifically “those that endured policies of the first [Trump] administration."

Policies, he pointed out, like President-elect Donald Trump’s decision to ban trans individuals from serving in the military — a decision announced on the social media platform X.

“In his first four years, Donald Trump led the most anti-LGBTQ+ administration in American history,” Brandon Wolf, national press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign said.

“He’s the guy who argued that businesses should be able to deny service to LGBTQ+ people. And when running for the second time, he talked about how much further he would go if given another shot in the White House,” he continued. “He’s the guy who has threatened to ban access to healthcare for transgender young people."

Trump has made anti-trans rhetoric a significant part of his 2024 campaign, with ads that featured phrases such as “Kamala is for they/them. Donald Trump is for you.”

The president-elect himself used language seemingly mocking the sexuality of CNN’s Anderson Cooper, referring to him on more than one occasion as “Allison Cooper.”

Trump's runningmate JD Vance said in an interview with podcaster Joe Rogan that he wouldn’t be surprised if he and Trump won “just the normal gay guy vote."

“We all know that young people pay attention to the news more than ever before. And our research shows that rhetoric really hurts them,” Jackson Budinger of The Trevor Project, a nonprofit suicide prevention group, said.

According to the Trevor Project, in the days leading up to the election, the group saw a 200% increase in people reaching out with concerns about election anxiety. The group also saw a 125% increase in crisis hotline volume from Election Day to Thursday.

“LGBTQ young people are feeling a lot of fear right now, a lot of uncertainty and questions of what comes next,” she added.

Harris remains hopeful for a better future.

“I don’t choose fear. I just choose awareness,” she said.