US President-elect Donald Trump said on Sunday that he plans to end what he calls “transgender delirium” as soon as he takes office on 20 January. During a speech to young conservatives in Phoenix, Arizona, Trump reiterated his tough stance on the LGBT+ community, AFP reports.
“Immediately after my inauguration, I will sign executive orders to stop the sexual mutation of children, to exclude transgender people from the military, and to ban their presence in elementary, middle, and high schools,” Donald Trump said.
He stressed that official US policy will define the existence of only two genders: male and female.
The issues of medical procedures for minors to change their gender and the participation of transgender women in women’s sports competitions are highly controversial in American society. Republicans are actively opposing LGBT+ rights in states where they have political control, and even in Congress. In November, they tried to restrict the access of the first transgender woman congresswoman, Sarah McBride, to women’s toilets in the Capitol.
“Walkism has got to stop,” Trump said to the applause of the crowd.
The term ‘walkism’, which originated from the struggle for equality by African-American activists, is often used by conservative politicians to criticise what they see as ‘over-activism’ on issues of minority rights, social justice and climate change.
During the same speech, Trump also escalated his rhetoric on immigration, calling it one of his main topics. He promised to sign a series of executive orders to close the borders to illegal migrants and launch the “largest deportation in US history”.
Criticising the situation on the southern border of the United States, Trump spoke about his appeal to Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum: “I told her she can’t keep doing this to our country.”
“January 20 will be a real day of liberation for America,” Donald Trump summed up at an event organised by the conservative Turning Point USA, headed by his supporter, far-right polemicist Charlie Kirk.
