President Donald Trump delivered a divisive and partisan address before a joint session of Congress on Tuesday that also included multiple references to his administration's anti-transgender executive actions.
The joint address to Congress is similar to a State of the Union speech and is typically given by the president in his first year. Trump was sworn into office January 20 for his second four-year term.
"We've ended the tyranny of so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion policies all across the entire federal government and indeed the private sector and our military," Trump said, promising, "our country will be woke no longer."
Later, he said, "We have removed the poison of critical race theory from our public schools, and they signed an order making it the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female."
"I also signed an executive order to ban men from playing in women's sports," Trump said.
At that point, the president introduced one of his special guests, Payton McNabb – who, he said, was seriously injured three years ago when her girls' volleyball game was "invaded by a male" who spiked the ball "so hard in Peyton's face, causing traumatic brain injury."
GLAAD, in a news release issued ahead of Trump's speech, noted that, "McNabb has since been hired by opponents of trans people to use her injury to argue that all trans youth should be denied the chance to play sports as their authentic selves."
She is "a paid spokesperson for an anti-transgender group that also advocates to ban health care and to force schools to dangerously out LGBTQ youth without their consent," the group wrote.
Trump continued, "Take a look at what happened in the women's boxing, weight lifting, track and field, swimming, or cycling, where a male recently finished a long distance race five hours and 14 minutes ahead of a woman for a new record by five hours."
"It's demeaning for women, and it's very bad for our country. We're not going to put up with it any longer," the president said.
Trump was apparently referring to trans cyclist Austin Killips, who won a race in North Carolina by five minutes in 2023.
During this section of the speech, news cameras turned to Riley Gaines, a former NCAA swimmer turned anti-trans activist, who was a guest of Republican Congressmember Mariannette Miller-Meeks (Iowa) and has worked with the Independent Women's Forum, the same group as McNabb.
GLAAD wrote that Gaines "parlayed her fifth place finish into a career of testifying in states she does not live in to support full bans on transgender youth as young as kindergarten from playing sports."
Later, when decrying government spending, Trump noted $8 million was used "to promote LGBTQI+ in the African nation of Lesotho, which nobody has ever heard of" and $8 million "for making mice transgender."
Actually, the National Institutes of Health and others are studying transgenic mice, where the rodents are genetically altered. This is to study them as models of human disease and for the study of metabolic processes, according to the NIH.
About an hour into his speech, the president said, "My administration is also working to protect our children from toxic ideologies in our schools. A few years ago, January Littlejohn and her husband discovered that their daughter's school had secretly socially transitioned their 13-year-old little girl."
"Teachers and administrators conspired to deceive January and her husband while encouraging their daughter to use a new name and pronouns," he said. "'They-them' pronoun, actually, all without telling January, who is here tonight and is now a courageous advocate against this form of child abuse."
GLAAD noted that "records show January Littlejohn of Tallahassee, Fla., worked with the school district to support her nonbinary child, before Littlejohn sued the district with lawyers from a national anti-LGBTQ group."
According to GLAAD, the family's complaint accused the school of discussing "restrooms and name change requests with their child without their consent," but "a public records request showed that the family had ongoing communications with the school and gave approval to let their child and their teachers lead on appropriate school protocols."
"The Trump White House is using the address to Congress to continue its baseless and unhinged disinformation campaign against transgender Americans," GLAAD stated. "The invited guests being deployed to smear transgender people are paid spokespeople for anti-LGBTQ groups that demand schools dangerously out LGBTQ students without their consent, who go against every major medical association supporting medically-necessary health care, and do nothing to promote women and girls in sports or protect everyone's safety and wellbeing."
Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, which is suing Trump and his administration over several of his executive orders, blasted the speech.
"President Trump's remarks were, frankly, pathetic and ignorant," stated Lambda Legal CEO Kevin Jennings, a gay man who served in the Obama administration. "His rhetoric attacked the identities and lives of the LGBTQ+ community, particularly trans and nonbinary people and youth, by falsely insinuating they don't even exist. It is an affront to the very core of what this nation should stand for: respect, equality, and humanity.
"The president's words, designed to stir fear and amplify misinformation, serve only to marginalize and harm those who already face immense barriers and discrimination," Jennings added. "Let's be clear: Trump's words and policies are an assault on decades of civil rights progress and anti-discrimination protections."
Oakland congressmember delivers prebuttal
Oakland freshman Congressmember Lateefah Simon (D) delivered a pre-recorded prebuttal speech on behalf of the progressive Working Families Party. Billed as a "Working People's State of the Union," Simon said that the party believes the "government should be run by, and serve, the people, not just the privileged and the wealthy."
Simon, a straight ally, was elected last November to replace former congressmember Barbara Lee (D). She said that she's only been in Congress for two months, since the 119th Congress started January 3. (Lee is running for mayor of Oakland in a special election April 15.)
"But let me tell you, I'm already alarmed," Simon said.
She spoke about her late husband's fight with cancer, noting the financial challenges faced by her family and other families that go through major medical crises. Recently, Simon said, she toured UC Berkeley labs, where students and researchers are advancing clinical trials and other work to fight diseases. But the Trump administration wants to end that, she said, and "cut funding for this very research."
Simon also spoke of proposed cuts to Medicaid and Medicare that Republicans in Congress are trying to move through "right now." This is despite the fact that Trump has said Medicare wouldn't be affected by cuts.
"I want better for all of us," she said.
Simon did attend Trump's speech, but walked out during his remarks. In a statement, she said she did so because it's "my duty to uphold Congress' power of checks and balances and be a witness to truth. There was no truth to be found."
"After hearing President Trump's lies about Social Security and his celebration of firing dedicated federal workers – I walked out of his joint address to Congress," Simon stated.
"Over 60 million Americans rely on Social Security," she continued. "As someone who previously relied on Social Security Disability Income benefits and waited for hours in a local Social Security office to file survivor benefits after my husband, Kevin, died of cancer – I know firsthand how devastating the Administration's cuts to Social Security will be.
"I don't need to listen to more of the president's lies or blatant celebration of racism and transphobia – and I'm focused on the real work for our communities in California's 12th Congressional District," Simon stated.
The Bay Area Reporter contributed reporting.
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