LEMON DROP | MAGA Has Full Responsibility For This Hate!
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What does GLAAD's 2025 Alert Desk Report reveal about anti-LGBTQ+ violence?
We are in the middle of Pride Month right now, and the need to protect and uplift the LGBTQ plus community has never felt more urgent. New data from GLAAD's 2025 Alert Desk Report reveals a chilling surge in anti LGBTQ violence, with nearly 1000 documented incidents in the past year alone, including threats and physical attacks on members of the community, public officials and educators. So at the forefront of the fight, For LGBTQ plus rights is Sarah Kate Ellis, the president and CEO of GLAAD, the world's LGBTQ plus media advocacy organization. And she joins us now. Sarah Kate, thank you so much for joining and thank you for the great work that you do.
Thank you. Happy Pride, Don.
Happy Pride to you as well. So let's start with this 2025 Alert Desk Report. It says 932 anti-LGBTQ plus incidents in one year. That is staggering. What do these numbers tell you about the moment that we're living in right now?
Just, yeah, just to put that into context for you too, that's about two and a half attacks a day on the community. So this tells me that the rhetoric that's being ginned up by anti-LGBTQ activists is giving permission slips to folks to be violent and threatening against our community. And when we look at the leadership of America now, we should be looking at someone who is
tamping that down and bringing that down not escalating that and driving it and so i think you know we're as an as a community caught in the crosshairs so look i want to ask you about um you know you remember the election the whole trans issue right that was so huge during the election this same report shows that more than half of these incidents are targeted they target trans uh gender and non-conforming people and gender non-conforming people Why are they experiencing such violence? Is it political rhetoric? Again, that was one of the biggest issues during the campaign. I can't understand why, but man, the right surely capitalized on it.
Yeah. So I think there's a couple of things that are happening here. One is that such a small minority of Americans say they know someone who's trans. It was a year ago, 30% of Americans said they knew someone who's trans. And now that number has actually dropped down to 23% of Americans say they know someone who's trans. What we know is that you can't hate somebody whose story you know or the people that you know. And in the LGB movement, that's how we moved and changed hearts and minds was by coming out and sharing who we are. The trans community, first and foremost, is a very small population in this country. And secondly, the stories that are being told, so that void of 70 to 75% of people who say they don't know a trans person is being filled with misinformation, lies, and rhetoric, and targeting this community.
So there is no surprise that violence is up against the trans and gender nonconforming community at all, based on what's going on in in American society and culture today and how misinformation is being used to target them. But Don, our community has always been used as a political wedge issue. We've always been politicized as opposed to humanized. And if we were humanized, people knew our stories and knew that we want the same things. Our new accelerating acceptance research shows overwhelmingly that LGBTQ Americans and non-LGBTQ Americans, I think it's like 87% want the exact same things. So I think this anti-LGBTQ movement It's small but loud.
Why are transgender and gender‑nonconforming people facing a surge in targeted attacks?
And what they've done is they're trying to isolate us out of the American population and make us other and different as opposed to we share the same American values of freedom, family, and fairness. And it's been really, it's been deadly to our community.
Are you concerned? Look, we've known each other for a long time. And I thought like after marriage equality, that things were getting better. And I think they were getting better. But does it feel like it's gone backwards, especially with the Trump administration, especially with the attack on transgender people? Because again, as you said, it's such a small percentage of the population.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What does GLAAD's 2025 Alert Desk Report reveal about anti-LGBTQ+ violence?
0:14–4:13
2
Why are transgender and gender‑nonconforming people facing a surge in targeted attacks?
4:13–10:37
3
How has political rhetoric and the 2024 election energized anti‑LGBTQ+ movements?
10:37–19:25
4
Should Democrats change messaging around trans issues to win votes?
19:25–26:02
5
How responsible is the MAGA/Trump administration for creating a climate of hate?
26:02–32:19
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from The Don Lemon Show
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