Will Project 2025 Ruin Your Sex Life… and Your Life in General?

Changes in political policy are specific to whoever becomes president of the United States in November. Regardless of who wins, the laws that Americans may and cannot do in their private life will change when new ones are passed and others are repealed. Undoubtedly, all sides of the US political spectrum have very different but equally significant agendas. One side indeed has a far more defined goal than the other, as seen by the now-famous Project 2025 manifesto, which serves as a roadmap for the objectives of a second Trump administration.

What is Project 2025?

According to the Project 2025 header page, the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation developed the 920-page "Mandate for Leadership" as a "Presidential Transition Project" with a foundation in far-right Christian doctrine. Founded in 1973 and headquartered in the nation's capital, the Heritage Foundation is a conservative organization that gained notoriety during the 1980s and the administration of President Ronald Reagan.

The extensive report, which was authored by a purported "expert" in each of the major executive branch agencies or offices, is divided into distinct chapters. Whether these "experts" are merely conservative thinkers hoping to get government posts in a Trump White House, and how knowledgeable and truthful their speech may be, are up for discussion.

A more thorough examination would take more room than this article allows (and more endurance than any rational reader could ever muster). Still, Project 2025's suggested limitations on reproductive rights, LGBTQIA2S+ rights, Pornography, and the personal lives and lifestyle freedoms of Americans have us (and other rational members of society) running for cover!

A total ban on Pornography

For decades, far-right Christian-led political parties have been working to outlaw Pornography with the help of other right-wing religious institutions. According to the Project's page five, Pornography, as it is currently expressed in the pervasive spread of transgender ideology and the sexualization of children, is not a political Gordian knot that inextricably ties together disparate claims about free speech, property rights, sexual liberation, and child welfare, even though this white noise—white in many ways—has been heard in American politics for years. It is not entitled to protection under the First Amendment. Its proponents are sexist women's exploiters and child predators.

Additionally, the proposal declares: "Pornography ought to be prohibited. Its producers and distributors ought to be put behind bars. Public libraries and educators who spread it ought to be considered registered sex offenders. Additionally, technology and telecommunications companies that aid in its dissemination ought to be shut down.

Porn producers go straight to jail, so there doesn't seem to be any leeway in this case. Go, don't receive a free pass out of jail, don't get $200.

The eradication of LGBTQIA2S+ rights

The authors of Project 2025 believe that porn and some form of "transgender ideology" (whatever this is) are closely related to the "sexualization of children," as is evident from the heartfelt opening line of the Project's mandate above. And nothing infuriates a mob more than when they think their kids are in danger!

As The Advocate cautions, there is no denying that LGBTQIA2S+ individuals are "directly in its crosshairs" in Project 2025.

Policies that promote "LGBTQ+ equity," as well as initiatives that penalize marriage, disincentivize work, and support single motherhood, "should be repealed and replaced by policies that support the formation of stable, married, nuclear families," according to a document written by Roger Severino, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.

Severino and his compatriots appear to wish to eliminate protections and advantages for any unions and personal relationships that don't meet the idea of a "nuclear family" by using the broadest brushstrokes (and a paintbrush devoid of rainbow hues).

Additionally, it seems that they are unaware of what is going on in the lives of individuals and families that do not conform to heterosexual norms. Spoiler alert: Nobody is harmed by their presence, and they are perfectly fine. Despite this, Project 2025 continues to vigorously advocate for the repeal of laws permitting transgender people to serve in the military and the nationwide prohibition of gender-affirming care of any type.

The Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program will be discontinued as part of the plan, eliminating treatment for those with HIV and AIDS, a disease that still disproportionately affects LGBT people.

Project 2025 makes it evident that the government envisioned will not provide for the needs of every American.

Repealing marriage equality nationwide

Project 2025's objectives are explicitly outlined in the Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education (HMRE) Program: Preserve a biblically grounded, social science-supported concept of marriage and family; and shield faith-based grant recipients from breaches of their religious freedoms.

"Social science reports that evaluate the objective outcomes for children reared in households other than a heterosexual, intact marriage are also unambiguous: Higher degrees of instability (same-sex marriages last half as long on average as heterosexual marriages), financial hardship or poverty, and subpar behavioral, psychological, or educational results are all associated with other family structures.

Conveniently, the writers of Project 2025 did not mention their sources; thus, it is very unclear where they obtained these figures.

The authors go on to define a family—nuclear or otherwise—in a way that places a hetero-patriarchal society at its core. In a clear statement, Project 2025 advocates for "marriage, healthy family formation, and delaying sex to prevent pregnancy." It also suggests laws to "strengthen marriages as the norm, restore broken homes, and encourage unmarried couples to commit to marriage." To "provide state-level high school education resources and curriculum on healthy marriages," they even request federally sponsored funds.

What does the Project define as "healthy marriages," may we ask?

Further restrictions on reproductive rights

Project phrases like "euthanasia and abortion are not health care" and "abortion pills pose the single greatest threat to unborn children in a post-Roe world" give us juicy little pieces on the US political hot potato problem.

In other words, if Project 2025 becomes the country's legislative guide, the answer to the question of whether abortion should be left up to the states is negative.

A no-win game of US vs Them

The summons to action in these materials is quite regressive, their most worrisome aspect (though there is undoubtedly much to be uneasy about in any part of Project 2025). The goal of Project 2025 is to take the United States back in time, but this is essentially a complete rejection of human evolution.

Although American federal policy and our evolution are far from ideal, a lively debate should be at the heart of any functioning democracy, which can only exist if all citizens have equal rights. As anyone with a marginalized identity can tell you, America has never quite made it there, but we were closer than we are now, less than ten years ago, and we are still regressing.

There might be no way out of that situation if Project 2025 becomes law.