While former President Donald Trump’s policies and rhetoric have regularly antagonized the LGBTQ+ community, a small but vocal contingent of LGBTQ+ individuals have publicly supported the former president nonetheless, citing reasons that range from economic policies to personal admiration for his stance against political correctness. These endorsements challenge the assumption that LGBTQ+ voters are universally aligned with progressive politics, highlighting the diversity of political thought (and prejudices) within the community.
Below are 10 LGBTQ+ public figures who have endorsed Trump, each with a unique relationship to him, ranging from financial backing to active participation in his campaigns.
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Scott Bessent
Scott Bessent, an openly gay American investor and founder of Key Square Group, has a long history of political involvement, donating an estimated $10 million to $15 million to Republicans. He is reportedly on Trump’s shortlist for Treasury secretary, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Bessent literally ran to join Trump onstage at an August 14 rally in Asheville, North Carolina, after Trump called him “one of the most brilliant men on Wall Street.” In his brief comments, Bessent said, “Look, this is a Trump economy. This is a Trump stock market,” implying that the economy is thriving in anticipation of Trump winning in November.
“At the end of the day, Donald Trump wants to have a good economy, and he won’t do anything to take the economy off the cliff,” Bessent told Barrons.
Sophia Hutchins
Sophia Hutchins is the young transgender manager of right-wing trans conservative Caitlyn Jenner. Hutchins has distanced herself from the broader LGBTQ+ community, describing herself as a proud Roman Catholic and MAGA conservative.
Hutchins has worked for the transphobic right-wing media outlet Fox News and is a board member of the Log Cabin Republicans, a self-proclaimed group for LGBTQ+ conservatives that actively opposes transgender civil rights.
Sophia endorsed Trump during the 2023 Republican primaries and attended the victory celebration after he won the January 15 Iowa caucuses, taking photos with some of Trump’s inner circle.
Caitlyn Jenner
Caitlyn Jenner, who came out as transgender in 2015, is an American media personality and former Olympic gold medalist who nonetheless opposes allowing trans athletes to partake in competitive sports.
Though she claimed to vote for Trump in the 2016 presidential election, that may have been a lie. In October 2018, she withdrew her support of Trump — saying he “relentlessly attacked” the trans community by rolling back protections for trans students and banning trans people from the U.S. military.
“I have gotten more flak for being a conservative Republican than I have for being trans,” the transgender millionaire said. In 2021, she said, “Obviously I would support” Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign. In a May 1 Instagram post, Jenner endorsed Trump, writing, “We had world peace, unity, and law and order under President Trump!”
Azealia Banks
In November 2023, bisexual rapper Azealia Banks endorsed Trump because voting for President Joe Biden, she said, was “elder abuse.” She has continued to support Trump even after Biden dropped out of the presidential race.
When she endorsed Trump, she said she thinks he’s “funny,” said she’ll be voting for him in 2024, and added, “He’s been through how many bankruptcies? How many wives? How many television shows? Seriously, nothing can take him down.”
Banks has called gay men “fa***t” in the past and has made disparaging comments about transgender people, said she feels “way safer” in red states than in blue states because more people have guns. She used to live in California and now lives in Florida. In July 2024, she was spotted at a Trump rally in Miami, Florida.
Blaire White
Blaire White — a conservative transgender YouTuber and political commentator with over 1.5 million YouTube followers and over 556,000 Instagram followers — told The Hill in August 2024, “There’s a million reasons why I’m supporting Donald Trump in this election.” She said one of the biggest reasons she has endorsed Trump is to oppose the media’s support of his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris.
“We have an entirety of the corporate press that’s stacked against Donald Trump,” she said. “Just on principle … I don’t want to live in a world where we have the media completely constructing a reality and setting the window of accepted thought. So for me, a vote for Trump is a vote just against the media.”
White gained notoriety in November 2017 when she recorded an assault she experienced after crossing a police line meant to separate Trump supporters from anti-Trump protestors in Los Angeles, California. Before this, she became notorious for her right-leaning YouTube videos criticizing feminists, “social justice warriors,” the media, as well as other trans or gender-nonconforming people, Newsweek reported. She considers gender-affirming care for minors as a form of child abuse.
Amber Rose
Amber Rose, a bisexual model and media personality who once organized a massive SlutWalk through New York City as a protest against misogynist street harassment, endorsed Trump via Instagram in May 2024. She posted a picture featuring herself, Trump, and former First Lady Melania Trump at a black-tie fundraiser with the caption, “Trump 2024 
.”
Rose spoke in support of Trump on July 15 at the Republican National Convention (RNC). There, she claimed supporters of former President Donald Trump “don’t care if you’re Black, white, gay, or straight — it’s all love.”
“The left told me to hate Trump and even worse, to hate the other side, the people who support him,” Rose said in her RNC speech. “When you cut through the lies, you realize the truth: American families were better when Donald Trump was president. We were safer, wealthier, and stronger. A vote for Donald Trump is a vote to put money back in our pockets and good food on our kids’ plates.”
Rose’s appearance at the RNC and endorsement of Trump shocked many, especially since Trump has repeatedly advocated against women’s bodily autonomy as well as racial inclusivity and LGBTQ+ rights.
Lady MAGA
Lady MAGA, known offstage as Ryan Woods, is a gay, Mormon conservative drag performer who has used his platform to endorse Trump and support Republican values.
Woods came up with his MAGA-themed creation in 2019 and has been ostracized by his local Salt Lake City drag community. In March, Lady MAGA took selfies with attendees of the far-right CPAC conference. She calls herself a “costume artist” these days, and claims that drag performers “destroyed their credibility with predatory filth.” Her views coincide with right-wing figures who accuse drag queens of “sexualizing” kids.
She attended Donald Trump’s Million Man March in December 2020, where she spoke to the crowd of election deniers on the Washington Mall, weeks before the January 6, 2021 riots at the U.S. Capitol Dozens of white nationalists screamed abuse at her during her Million Man speech.
Richard Grenell
Richard Grenell made history as the first openly gay man to serve in a U.S. Cabinet position when he was appointed Acting Director of National Intelligence under Donald Trump. Though Grenell initially described Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign as “unserious” and “dangerous,” he deleted all his social media criticisms of Trump and began praising him when Trump won the Republican nomination.
Although Grenell claimed in August 2020 that “President Trump is the most pro-gay president in American history,” nothing backs up that claim. During his time in the Trump administration, Grenell said he worked with Trump on a campaign to end the criminalization of homosexuality around the world, but the campaign seemingly accomplished nothing as Trump officials said that pressuring foreign countries to repeal their anti-LGBTQ+ laws would violate “religious freedom.” Grenell similarly opposes the Equality Act, legislation that would provide federal LGBTQ+ anti-discrimination protections, claiming it would be an attack on religion.
“Donald Trump doesn’t care if you’re gay or straight, Black, brown or white, or what gender you are,” Grenell said as the only out gay person to speak at the Republican National Convention. His claim stood in strong contrast to the other RNC speakers who repeatedly attacked many people’s genders. “He knows that we are all Americans and that it’s time to put America first,” Grenell added.
Dave Rubin
Dave Rubin, a gay political commentator and former progressive who was recently accused of being paid well to push Russian propaganda online (allegations he has denied), said he voted for Trump in 2020 because of Trump’s opposition to the “woke left” and critical race theory in schools and government.
“But, I see Trump, basically, as the last bulwark to stop the radical left,” Rubin told Fox and Friends in late October 2020, adding, “This isn’t just a counter vote, I think Donald Trump has actually done a lot of good.”
Along with his husband, Rubin is expecting children via surrogacy and has used his platform to champion conservative values, often aligning with Trump’s rhetoric on free speech and social issues, including his support of “Don’t Say Gay” legislation banning LGBTQ+-inclusive curriculum in schools.
“If I found out a teacher talked to my 6-year-old about gender or sexuality, I might kill that person,” Rubin said on the September 15, 2022 edition of The Rubin Report streamed on YouTube.
Tammy Bruce
Tammy Bruce, a lesbian conservative commentator and activist, has been an outspoken supporter of Donald Trump, frequently appearing on Fox News to support his agenda.
In an April 2024 rant against President Joe Biden in Time magazine, Bruce wrote that Biden has caused the world to “end,” citing military conflicts between Iran and Israel, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and North Korea firing some short-range missiles into the ocean, which the country has been doing for decades.
“And now we’ve got a chance to make a difference here. And this is what the bad guys also know. This is why the rest of this year as Donald Trump – they’ve tried to put him in a cage – the one guy that can save this nation and the world at this point,” Bruce wrote. “I thought Donald Trump was great and a great president. He’s now the guy that can save the world.”
LGBTQ+ organizations endorsing Donald Trump
Alongside these individual endorsements, several LGBTQ+ organizations have also thrown their support behind Donald Trump, advocating for conservative values within the LGBTQ+ community.
Gays for Trump
Founded by Peter Boykin, a failed Republican candidate for North Carolina’s House of Representatives, the transphobic group spent 2016 raising funds to get “Gays for Trump” billboards erected in Florida and North Carolina. In March 2018, Boykin organized a “March4Trump” in Washington, D.C. About 100 people attended, there was an “open mic” instead of scheduled speakers, and Boykin blamed the wind for the lack of attendance. Trump publicly acknowledged the group at an April 2022 fundraiser in his Mar-a-Lago resort, stating, “Where’s Gays for Trump? You don’t look gay!”
Log Cabin Republicans
The Log Cabin Republicans (LCR), the oldest LGBTQ+ conservative organization in the U.S., endorsed Donald Trump in 2020 but didn’t in 2016. The national organization — which has endorsed 14 anti-LGBTQ+ Republicans in 2018 and 12 anti-LGBTQ+ extremists in 2020 — continues to praise Trump and never condemned his incitement of the January 2021 insurrection at the Capitol. In July, LCR’s president falsely claimed the national GOP platform had been “stripped of all anti-LGBT language” — it hasn’t. The group opposes the Equality Act, transgender civil rights, and LGBTQ+ instruction in schools.
A complex relationship between Trump and the LGBTQ+ community
The endorsements of Donald Trump by LGBTQ+ public figures and groups serve as a reminder that the LGBTQ+ community, like any other, is not a monolith.
While the Republican Party has traditionally opposed LGBTQ+ civil rights, some queer people still support Trump in agreement with his cultural and political positions — including his general opposition to southern immigrants, abortion access, Muslims, and transgender rights — or his economic and nationalist views.
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