Here is what keeps LGBTQ+ advocates up at night about new Trump term

ASBURY PARK – For some in the LGBTQ+ community, their existence is an act of resistance to anyone who wants to “reconsider” their rights.
Many same-sex couples in Monmouth and Ocean counties are still coping with Donald Trump’s victory, fearing what a second Trump administration means for their marriages and other rights going forward.
Same-sex marriage is legal in all states and the District of Columbia through the landmark 2015 ruling Obergefell v. Hodges. However, voters in California, Colorado and Hawaii passed ballot measures designed to secure that right by amending language in their state constitutions to protect same-sex marriage.
Additionally, New Jersey passed its own law codifying same-sex marriage in 2022, and the federal government passed its own law later that year requiring all states to recognize same-sex marriages.
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Asbury Park Deputy Mayor Amy Quinn told the Asbury Park Press “we are absolutely worried about LGBTQ rights and marriage equality being overturned at the Supreme Court.”
Just a few months after Quinn began her tenure on the city council in July 2013, she and her wife, Heather Jensen, were among the first same-sex couples to be married in the state that October. Quinn and her wife are mothers to a son in the fourth grade.
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“Any appointments that will go on the Supreme Court the next four years will clearly be very conservative,” Quinn said.
In 2022, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas called on the Supreme Court to “reconsider” other rights established by the high court in the wake of its decision to overturn the Constitutional right to an abortion under Roe v. Wade, including access to contraception and gay marriage.
Following Thomas’ opinion, President Joe Biden signed legislation protecting same-sex marriages nationally. This marked a milestone in the fight for gay rights that followed a seismic change in the nation’s attitudes. The Respect for Marriage Act made it the law that all states recognize same-sex and interracial marriages.
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Quinn said, “I think there is a likelihood I would put above a chance” that the Supreme Court overturns Obergefell v. Hodges.
“I think there are Supreme Court Justices who think that was the wrong decision that currently sit on the Supreme Court, who do not believe in marriage equality,” Quinn said. Chief Justice John Roberts joined Thomas and Samuel Alito — all of whom are still on the court — and the late Antonin Scalia in opposing the decision. Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan are the two remaining justices from the majority vote; Anthony Kennedy and Stephen Breyer have retired, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg has died.
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Beyond same-sex marriage, there are other concerns. Under the first Trump administration, the federal government rolled back some LGBTQ+ protections in health care, banned transgender individuals from serving in the military, and supported policies in schools, workplaces and housing that LGBTQ+ advocates say are discriminatory.
Trump promised, if reelected, that his administration will rescind federal policies that prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, and asserts that federal civil rights laws do not cover anti-LGBTQ discrimination.
The first Trump “administration initiated a sustained, years-long effort to erase protections for LGBTQ people,” according to the nonprofit American Civil Liberties Union. This included an effort to “define ‘transgender’ out of existence,” erode protections for transgender students and workers, and weaken access to gender-affirming health care that most transgender people already struggled to access,” the ACLU said.
“My concerns lie with me (and my family) but probably more importantly to our trans brothers and sisters who are locked into red states,” Quinn said. “I think we should all be concerned about our public schools getting the support they need under the new Trump administration.”
There were 494 legislative measures described by the ACLU as anti-LGBTQ that were introduced in state legislatures across the country last year alone. Those include bills in New Jersey that would, for instance, prevent trans students from participating in sports, or censor in-school discussions of LGBTQ people and issues. None of those bills have advanced beyond the stage of being referred to a committee.
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Trump outlined the gender policy changes he would make or seek as president as part of Agenda 47, his official campaign platform.
Among the policies promoted are:
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Jan Moore, 88, a pioneer for LGBTQ+ rights in New Jersey, said “I’ll be damned if I stand by and watch. I’ll still stand. I’ll still march.”
“I went to bed last night I was an American. I woke up this morning, I am still an American,” Moore said. “It doesn’t matter to who runs it. As long as I have my speech, I’ll be out there. What can they do to me that hasn’t been done already?”
Moore met her wife, Emily Sonnessa, in 1960. They lived together for decades and raised their children.
“At that time, the laws were against us. You could lose your children because you were considered a pervert. If we ever got anything against us, we could’ve lost the children. The laws were very strict then. I think I fought for every damn law that is now in the state of New Jersey,” Moore said.
They joined in a civil union ceremony in 2007. Then when New Jersey legalized same-sex marriage in October 2013, the couple was married the very next month. According to their wedding announcement published in the Asbury Park Press; Sonnessa was 84 and Moore was 77 when they finally got married, with the actual day of their wedding being their 44th anniversary. Sonnessa was 91 and living in the Ocean Grove section of Neptune with her wife when she passed away in 2021, after 51 years together.
“I am extremely concerned. I am concerned when progress not only stands still but when it gets reversed,” Moore said.
She added “I feel that we’ve gone from winners, once again we can be victims.”
“His policies are an open door to discrimination being accepted as the norm, and that frightens me in all aspects of our lives,” Moore said. “And with it will come anger, demonstrations and violence. It all follows together.”
Charles Daye is the metro reporter for Asbury Park and Neptune, with a focus on diversity, equity and inclusion. @CharlesDayeAPP Contact him: [email protected]