How will a 2nd Trump presidency alter LGBTQ+ rights in Oregon? Communities brace for impact

With the news that Donald Trump won a second term as president earlier this week, terror and uncertainty have rippled through LGBTQ+ communities — and particularly transgender communities — in Oregon, given all that the 45th and soon-to-be 47th president has said about them.

To what degree will he carry out his stated agenda? How far will his influence reach? And how much of what he has said was simply campaign talk?

Many members of Oregon's LGBTQ+ communities say they are bracing for impact once Trump moves back to the White House Jan. 20.

"I think anything is on the table," said Blair Stenvick, a spokesperson for the advocacy organization Basic Rights Oregon who also is trans. "He's been very clear about what he thinks about trans people. And he's going to have essentially unchecked power now. It's scary."

Advocates for LGBTQ+ rights say they have no reason to believe that Trump won't act on all that he has pledged. During his victory speech on Wednesday, he reaffirmed a general, sweeping commitment to make good on his campaign promises.

"We're going to turn it around," Trump said. "We're going to do it in every way with so many ways, but we're going to do it in every way."

Supporters of LGBTQ+ rights worry that Trump's influence will encourage communities in some parts of Oregon to pass their own local rules and restrictions. That's on top of what advocates agonize could be Trumped-fueled congressional legislation that could tie federal funding to Trump's views on LGBTQ+ rights.

Trump has vowed to cease Medicaid and Medicare money for medical providers who offer minors gender-affirming care, such as hormones or surgery. He has said he plans to enforce "severe consequences," including cutting off federal dollars, at schools where teachers who talk about gender identity "suggest to a child that they could be trapped in the wrong body."

And he's been vocal about banning transgender girls or women from competing in female sports. He also has promised to reinstate his first term ban on trangender people openly serving in the military, which current President Joe Biden reversed.

He hasn't said as much about his stances on other LGBTQ+ rights lately, but has offered myriad views over the years.

Porta said she believes if Congress and the Supreme Court back Trump's to-do list, it may be difficult to impossible to uphold certain LGBTQ+ rights in Oregon — among them, same-sex marriage and LGBTQ+ couples adopting children.

"The incoming president isn't very fond of Oregon," said Debra Porta, executive director of Pride Northwest, an LGBTQ+ nonprofit in Portland. "There are so many unknowns. We don't know how far they're going to push certain envelopes. That's where the majority of the fear comes from."

A poll of Oregonians last year showed strong support for protecting transgender people from discrimination in jobs and housing, but that support was deeply divided when it came to other areas, including participation in sports (61% supported allowing athletes to only compete in sports based on the gender they were assigned at birth) and allowing schools to teach about gender identity (almost a 50-50 split).

Portland-area residents aligned much more with trangender communities than residents in many other parts of the state, including on the issue of whether a person's gender is determined by the sex they are assigned at birth. One-third of Portland-area respondents agreed with that, compared to nearly double that in the rest of the state outside the Willamette Valley.

Jeff Selby, interim director of the city of Portland's Office of Equity and Human Rights, said the city is aware of Trump's stated range of plans — from transgender people to diversity, equity and inclusion programs. But despite that agenda, Selby said the city is committed to upholding its core values of antiracism and equity among all people.

"As city employees, our work is non-partisan," Selby said. But "this is not about politics. This is about a leader specifically targeting and attacking people and the communities that we serve."

The city's Office of Equity and Human Rights isn't funded by federal dollars, Selby said. But some wonder if Trump could axe funding to cities or states, too, like he has threatened to do to schools that teach about gender identity.

And what would cross the line: Portland's plans to build Darcelle XV Plaza , in honor of the late drag queen performer — complete with a pink-triangle canopy? Or a city's or county's efforts to encourage a diversity of contractors to bid for jobs?

Selby wonders if Trump will rein in funding to federally run housing and anti-job discrimination programs based on federal civil rights laws .

"If the federal government isn't enforcing those laws, or is withholding funds, that could have a huge impact on the entire Portland community," Selby said.

Porta, at Pride Northwest, said she was at a results-watching party on election night when the outcome of the 2024 presidential race became clear. And attendees grasped for any positives they could find, she said.

"A community member walked up to me and expressed their relief that 'Thank goodness we live in Oregon," Porta said. "For the most part, that's true."

Despite efforts by some communities outside the Portland-area "bubble," LGBTQ+ people are more protected in Oregon than many other states, Porta said.

In 2007, Oregon outlawed discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in the workplace, housing and public accommodations — joining a long-standing list of other protected characteristics, such as race and religion. The Oregon Legislature also has passed laws upholding gender-affirming care, including last year when it required insurance companies to cover medically necessary procedures.

Oregon also is notable for what it hasn't done. It is not part of a wave of states that recently banned transgender youth from competing in sports , required transgender people to use the public restrooms based on the sex they were assigned to at birth or outlawed medical providers from providing youth gender-affirming care .

"But," Porta said, under a second Trump presidency "we need to pay attention. We can't take for granted what we have in Oregon."

Efforts are underway to ask voters in 2026 to approve a ballot measure that would enshrine the rights to same-sex marriage, transgender health care and abortion in the Oregon constitution. Currently, the state constitution defines marriage as only between a man and a woman, though a federal judge in 2014 and the U.S. Supreme Court in 2015 ruled that definition unconstitutional. Changing Oregon's constitution would be insurance if the U.S. Supreme Court, now stocked with three Trump appointees and with more possibly to come, reversed its 2015 ruling.

There's also the fear that — during a second term — Trump's rhetoric may again prompt a spike in hostility and violence toward LGBTQ+ people, as well as racism and xenophobia directed at people who aren't white or weren't born in the United States.

"Like in 2016, there are people in this state and in this region who are going to be emboldened to think it's going to be ok to harm us," Porta said.

Though unofficial results show Vice President Kamala Harris pulling a solid victory in Oregon, Trump still won a significant portion of the vote, notes Stenvick, at Basic Rights Oregon. Results as of Friday show he attracted 42% of the vote . And that's unsettling on "a human-to-human level," Stenvick said.

"As trans people, we're really just trying to live our own lives, to make our own medical decisions with our doctors and exist without discrimination in the public sphere," Stenvick said. "And just knowing that there's going to be someone in the White House that is antagonistic to that, that's scary."

— Aimee Green covers breaking news and the justice system. Reach her at 503-294-5119, or .