Who Gets to Exist? America’s Erasure of LGBTQ+ Rights

It’s a quiet morning. I sip my coffee and scroll through the news, expecting the usual—politics, economics, the occasional viral video. But then, something catches my eye.

Another law. Another policy change. Another rollback of LGBTQ+ rights in the United States.

I pause.

For years, America has been the gold standard of democracy, freedom, and human rights. It has led global conversations on equality, often calling out other nations for their shortcomings. But now, it seems to be dismantling the very rights it once championed.

Unbeknownst to all of us, America is fed up of all this freedom to express oneself—and with a stroke of a pen, the LGBTQ+ community is assailed. Policies erased, protections removed, visibility stripped away. As a meme put it, America went from 0 to 1930 in three seconds.

And here I am, in the Philippines—watching as my own country takes steps toward inclusivity. We have Gender and Development (GAD) initiatives, government programs for gender equality, and ongoing conversations about LGBTQ+ rights. We are not perfect, but we are trying.

Meanwhile, America is going backward.

It’s unsettling. Because America isn’t just any country—it’s like a big brother to the Philippines. We tend to follow what it does. Our constitution is practically a carbon copy of theirs.

So what does that mean for us?

Are we supposed to follow their lead here, too?

Not Judging—Just Wondering

This blog isn’t about judging America or its citizens. If anything, it’s general wondering.

It's their country. They have the right to make their own choices.

But what I find starkly surprising is how tired America is of the LGBTQ+ community—so much so that it only took one person to push this shift, and suddenly, an entire population backed him.

As it turns out, that resentment has been brewing for years.

America’s Reversal: The Systematic Rollback of LGBTQ+ Rights

A Blueprint for Erasure

For years, America positioned itself as a global leader in human rights. Now, it’s writing a new playbook—one that removes, restricts, and erases.

Project 2025, a 1,000-page policy roadmap from the Heritage Foundation, lays out the strategy. It was drafted by a coalition of over 100 right-wing organizations and includes contributions from 140 former Trump administration officials (The Conversation).

At its core, Project 2025 seeks to redefine “sex” in U.S. law, removing gender identity and sexual orientation from civil rights protections. This allows agencies to roll back federal protections for LGBTQ+ workers, patients, and students under the guise of “religious liberty” (GLAAD).

It doesn’t stop there.

This plan also calls for a massive government overhaul—replacing career civil servants with ideological loyalists, giving the president unprecedented power, and embedding Christian nationalist policies into the federal system. The goal? To dismantle civil rights protections in the name of “traditional values.”

And it’s already happening.

The Quiet Erasure of LGBTQ+ Visibility

Within 48 hours of inauguration, the White House website purged all LGBTQ+ content. Gone were workplace protections, healthcare guidelines, and historical acknowledgments like Pride Month proclamations (NBC News).

A quick search on federal websites now returns “404 - Page Not Found” for terms like transgender and sexual orientation (ACLU).

Even health-related resources—like guidance on PrEP (HIV prevention) and workplace protections—were deleted (The Nation).

This isn’t just policy change. It’s digital erasure, a calculated move to make LGBTQ+ issues invisible in the public sphere.

The Religious Right’s Perspective – And Its Flaws

Those who push these policies claim they are “defending religious freedom” and “protecting traditional values.”

They argue that LGBTQ+ rights have gone too far, that acknowledging queer people threatens faith-based beliefs, and that returning to a stricter moral framework will restore America’s greatness.

But let’s be honest.

This isn’t about defending religion.

It’s about controlling who gets to exist.

Christian nationalist leaders want an America where only one version of life is acceptable—where LGBTQ+ people have no legal standing, no cultural presence, and no safe place in society. The goal is not just exclusion, but total erasure.

The question is: Who gets to exist?

Because when governments start deciding whose identities are valid and whose are not, it rarely stops at one group.

Closing Thoughts: Is This Still the Land of the Free?

America has always been the country that promised freedom for all.

But now, that freedom comes with an asterisk.

LGBTQ+ rights, once seen as part of that promise, are being rewritten, erased, and criminalized. And the world is watching.

If a country like the Philippines—one still grappling with its own struggles—can push forward, why is America pulling back?

Some will say this is exaggeration. That LGBTQ+ people in America still have rights. That no one is stopping them from living their lives.

But erasure doesn’t always happen overnight. It happens law by law, policy by policy, silence by silence—until one day, people wake up to find that the rights they assumed were permanent are gone.

Some will argue that this isn’t an attack, just a return to “traditional values.” But since when does protecting tradition require taking away someone else’s freedom?

And to those who think this won’t affect them—LGBTQ+ Trump supporters who believed their rights were safe—imagine the shock of defending him with all your might, only to realize you were never part of the plan.

Rights once gained can be lost.

But they can also be reclaimed.

So what now?

Is America still the land of the free?

Or is freedom becoming conditional?

And if America is willing to erase rights this quickly, what’s next?

Criminal charges for existing? Forced re-education? A return to state-sanctioned persecution?

Who gets to exist?