Anti-LGBTQ rhetoric plays a prominent role in first night of RNC

Megan Lebowitz and Jo Yurcaba
·2 min read
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Some high-profile speakers on the first night of the Republican National Convention leaned into anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, doubling down on the party's 2024 platform, which calls for keeping "men out of women's sports" and ending "left-wing gender insanity."

Their speeches Monday especially targeted transgender and non-gender-conforming people.

“Let me state this clearly: There are only two genders,” said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.

Rep. John James, R-Mich., criticized transgender women's playing in women's sports, a popular conservative talking point.

“Our daughters were sold on hope, and now they’re being forced on the playing fields and changing rooms of biological males," James said.

Minutes earlier, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., referred to another prominent conservative target, including in Florida's so-called Don't Say Gay bill: the teaching of gender ideology or sexual orientation in schools.

“This fringe agenda includes biological males competing against girls and the sexualization and indoctrination of our children,” he said as the audience booed.

Monday’s speeches take place against the backdrop of a spate of anti-LGBTQ incidents, including anti-Pride flag rhetoric and the slashing of Pride Month banners.

Anti-LGBTQ legislation has increased in recent years. Last year, at least 75 anti-LGBTQ laws — including ones that targeted gender-affirming care and school sports — were enacted across 23 states, according to an NBC News analysis of American Civil Liberties Union data.

Ahead of the convention, party members published their platform, which says Republicans will "end left-wing gender insanity."

"We will keep men out of women’s sports, ban Taxpayer funding for sex change surgeries, and stop Taxpayer-funded Schools from promoting gender transition, reverse Biden’s radical rewrite of Title IX Education Regulations, and restore protections for women and girls," the document said.

The Biden campaign slammed North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, the GOP nominee for governor, on X for speaking, pointing to his previous comments about LGBTQ people, which he did not echo in Monday's speech.

"There’s no reason anybody anywhere in America should be telling any child about transgenderism, homosexuality — any of that filth,” Robinson had said in 2021.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com