Free Speech

Summary of Impacts

Project 2025 recommends reducing environmental regulations on business which will lead to higher emissions and environmental harm. It suggests withdrawing from international environmental agreements which will lead to the breakdown of global efforts to fight climate change. It aims to cut funding for research into climate change and renewable energy, weakening future technological innovation.

Key Quotes

"Restart the China Initiative."
(Hamilton 556)

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission “should not use environmental issues like climate change as a reason to stop LNG [Liquid Natural Gas] projects… [and] should ensure that the natural gas pipelines that are needed deliver more of the product to market.”
(McNamee 440)

“Congress should wind down so-called ‘area studies’ programs at universities.”
(Burke 388)

Impacts on Free Speech

Project 2025 will severely impact all of our First Amendment right to free speech. It calls for an extreme ban on anything deemed “pornography”, a school curriculum overhaul that bans books from classrooms, rescinds existing civil rights to personal privacy, and emphasizes total parental control over their children.

Project 2025 suggests strict measures against pornography, including its complete ban and criminal penalties for those who produce it (Roberts 5). This would significantly impact free expression by removing content most consider to be a form of free speech. Not only does it silence authors, it also sets a precedent where the government decides what adults can or cannot view.

The document also targets what it calls “gender ideology” and “critical race theory,” suggesting that these topics should be removed from schools (Burke 342). This will lead to book bans on materials that discuss these issues, limiting the variety of perspectives students can access. Such actions stifle free thought and understanding of diverse viewpoints, leaving students less informed.

Another major free speech concern is health privacy. Project 2025 proposes strict rules against gender-affirming care, and these rules would include notifying parents about children’s decisions (Burke 346). This intrudes on personal health decisions and undermines privacy, particularly for LGBTQ+ youth who may not receive support at home. This could lead to more harm and less willingness to seek needed medical care.

In summary, the strict measures against pornography, banned books, and reduced health privacy from Project 2025 could hurt free speech and individual privacy rights, significantly affecting marginalized communities and the general public’s freedom and access to information.

Legislation in Progress or Completed

This is an ongoing list of legislation being pushed through government by proponents of Project 2025:

Quotes from the Mandate

Page numbers refer to the Mandate for Leadership PDF

“Ensure that Internet companies no longer have carte blanche to censor protected speech… [and] empower consumers to choose their own content filters and fact checkers, if any.” (Independent Regulatory Agencies, Federal Communications Commission, Page 849)

Project 2025 argues for scrapping the FCC’s current approach to Section 230, which shields social media providers from legal liability related to user content. It also allows them to remove objectionable materials (in good faith). For example, social media companies currently have the legal right to censor violence, inappropriate imagery, copyright violations, hate speech, and misinformation.
Project 2025 wants to ensure that “antidiscrimination provisions” are applied to social media, especially with respect to “core political viewpoints.” They reference a Texas court case (Netchoice, LLC v. Paxton) which held that, since social media platforms are “common carriers,” they must provide equal access to everyone, essentially turning social media into a public square instead of a private company.
This policy will make it very difficult to find truthful information online, especially when combined with their other policies forbidding Dept. of Homeland Security and the FBIfrom combatting misinformation. Since conservative circles tend to be exposed to more unreliable news, it is likely that this policy will exacerbate the problem and make political discourse (and solutions) even more difficult.

“Pornography, …the omnipresent propagation of transgender ideology… has no claim to First Amendment protection. Its purveyors are child predators and misogynistic exploiters of women. The people who produce and distribute it should be imprisoned. Educators and public librarians who purvey it should be classed as registered sex offenders.” (Foreword, page 5)

This particular passage, taken with other stated agendas of Project 2025, points to a horrifying probability. By twisting words to insinuate that transgender individuals, by merely existing, are pornographic as well as child predators and misogynists, the playbook projects harmful falsehoods about the LGBTQIA+ population and calls for increased punishment for these perceived crimes. Changing the definition of pornography to include LGBTQIA-affirming books and educational materials implicates that teachers, librarians, and parents of trans children are all sex offenders who should be imprisoned. These supportive allies of the transgender community will face fines and imprisonment at the very least, and possibly the death penalty at the worst, since the playbook calls to expand the death penalty to crimes in which the victim’s life was not ended.

“Rescind regulations prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, transgender status, and sex characteristics.” (General Welfare, Dept. of Labor, Page 584)

This policy is harmful to LGBTQ+ individuals as it seeks to remove protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and transgender status. Rescinding these regulations would allow employers and other entities to discriminate against LGBTQ+ individuals without legal repercussions, leading to increased marginalization and harm to this community.
For more information about specific regulations that will be rescinded, check out the DOL’s LGBTQI+ Policy page.

“Remove all guidance… concerning sexual orientation and gender identity… [and do] not enforce any prohibition on sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination” (General Welfare, Dept. of Health, Page 495)

In addition to removing guidance and not enforcing existing discrimination law for the LGBTQ+ community, the author calls for a rule to explicitly interpret the law NOT to include sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination, and to “defend this rule to the Supreme Court if necessary.” They plan to prioritize compliance with the First Amendment, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), and federal conscience laws.
An interesting subtlety in this section is the mention of Heckler v. Chaney, a court case where the Supreme Court ruled that federal agencies that refuse to enforce rules are not subject to judicial review unless there are other laws stating otherwise. Put simply, the next conservative administration will do nothing to protect the LGBTQ+ community from discrimination, and the courts won’t help.
This policy is terrifying for the LGBTQ+ community. Anyone will be able to legally refuse them any kind of healthcare (not just healthcare related to gender and sexual orientation). Transgender people are particularly affected by discrimination – 40% of trans respondents reported postponing or avoiding preventive screenings because of discrimination in a 2020 survey. This policy will lead to preventable deaths of our LGBTQ+ community.

“Amend Title IX to include due process requirements; define “sex” under Title IX to mean only biological sex recognized at birth; and strengthen protections for faith-based educational institutions, programs, and activities.” (General Welfare, Dept. of Education, Page 333)

Title IX prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or education program that receives funding from the federal government. It already includes due process requirements.
The author expands on the changes related to sex later, advising to “abandon this change redefining ‘sex’ to mean ‘sexual orientation and gender identity’ in Title IX immediately… with the additional insistence that ‘sex’ is properly understood as a fixed biological fact.”
The changes proposed here will hamper justice for sexual assault victims, remove protections for the LGBTQ+ community, and exempt religious institutions from Title IX requirements (even though they receive federal funds).

“Enforce the death penalty where appropriate and applicable” (General Welfare, Dept. of Justice, Page 554)

In this section, they clarify that this would involve doing “everything possible” to move forward with the 44 prisoners on federal death row and expanding the types of crimes that could be eligible for the death penalty. They specifically reference overturning Kennedy v. Louisiana, which prohibits the death penalty for crimes in which the victim did not die (sexual abuse, for example).
This policy proposal, when taken with other stated agendas of Project 2025, points to a worrying possibility. Throughout the book, there are definition changes and calls for increased punishment that will impact the LGBTQIA+ community. Earlier, on PDF page 37, they define pornography as “the omnipresent propagation of transgender ideology” and that “it has no claim to First Amendment protection. Its purveyors are child predators and misogynistic exploiters of women.” Their conclusion: “the people who produce and distribute it should be imprisoned. Educators and public librarians who purvey it should be classed as registered sex offenders.”
Changing the definition of pornography to include LGBTQIA-affirming books and educational materials would implicate teachers, librarians, and parents of trans children. They label them sex offenders who should be imprisoned. And as we see above, they are also expanding the death penalty to apply to child sexual abuse. Teachers, librarians, and parents who offer LGBTQIA-affirming materials will face fines and imprisonment at the very least. And depending how the zealous conservative political appointees interpret “registered sex offenders” and “child sexual abuse,” in these scenarios, these educators and caregivers may face the death penalty. (Note that Project 2025 does not overtly connect the death penalty to LGBTQIA+ communities.)