The president and CEO of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) is taking aim at the new Trump administration and the tech billionaires who support him.
NGO boss Sarah Kate Ellis addressed a World Economic Forum panel in Davos, Switzerland on Thursday to discuss Donald Trump's relationship with X (formerly Twitter) founder Elon Musk and Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg — both sat in the front row of the presidential meeting leading up to Monday's inauguration.
"Trump's first administration committed approximately 280 acts against our community, and while campaigning for the (recent) election, he spent over $280 million on ads specifically targeting the transgender community," Liss told other panelists Ben Fajzullin, Frida Daniela Ruiz, Alexander Cheng, Venus and Jean-Daniel Larocque. "It's a lot of money that can be used for good causes. It's a lot of money."
“At the heart of this money is Elon Musk,” she continued (the South African Musk has been appointed by Trump to head the new “Government Effectiveness” department). "It's like the 1 percent gets all this power and all this money, and these billionaires are targeting the most marginalized people in the world," Ellis said. She believes this targeting was a "distraction" and urged people to focus on what the media mogul is "really doing."
“As long as they keep us on our toes and criticize us, they can make money and seize more power.” She cited GLAAD statistics, including a recent study showing that right-wing media reaches 100 million Americans every week . By comparison, progressive media reaches 30 million people each week, Ellis said.
"There's a shortfall of 70 million people, and I think that's at the heart of the challenge we're facing right now," she added. "Because the narrative has shifted to talking about ideology. They're creating ideology, but LGBTQ+ identities (just) exist."
Hours after taking office on Monday, Trump vowed to undo many of Joe Biden's progressive policies, including those supporting the LGBTQIA+ community. One of his orders requires the United States to recognize only two genders, male and female, because the government is now required to use the word "sex" instead of "sex."
He also demanded that government-issued identity documents, including passports and visas, be based on "an individual's immutable biological classification of male or female."