As the Republican National Convention kicks off in Wisconsin this week, former President Donald Trump is hoping to woo voters after a shooting by a lone gunman during his rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday. While pundits speculate about how the tenor of the gathering might change after the shooting, queer rights groups will be nervously watching to see whether the Christian nationalism and anti-LGBTQ extremism in vogue on the right will be on display or shoved under the rug.

All eyes are on Project 2025, the 900-page handbook for a Trump White House that lays the foundation for a brutal purge of immigrants and a far right takeover of the federal bureaucracy orchestrated by conservative activists and Christian nationalists. The agenda is a product of the Heritage Foundation, a think tank and major RNC sponsor, and coauthored by conservative activists and more than two dozen former Trump administration staffers.

The proposed policies and people behind Project 2025 are extreme and unpopular. It infamously calls for a ban on pornography, which is defined so broadly as to include books featuring same-sex couples and the very existence of transgender people.

Last week Trump said he has “nothing to do” with the handbook, a claim that journalists quickly found to be full of holes. A video from 2022 shows Trump applauding a set of Heritage Foundation policies that would become Project 2025.

Trump may be attempting to distance himself from Project 2025, but his campaign’s own list of promises also veers sharply to the right of public opinion. Dubbed “Agenda 47,” Trump’s policy platform targets public school teachers thrust into the culture wars and would undo civil rights........

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