Don't celebrate Nikki Haley's D.C. win — 6 awful things she said about LGBTQ+ people

Nikki Haley is the worst!

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When listening to Nikki Haley speak, it's easy to think she is a measured, intelligent politician if only because she's the sole candidate left vying for the Republican presidential nomination against the walking, talking dumpster fire known as Donald Trump.

But make no mistake, just because she isn't Trump doesn't mean Haley wouldn't harm the LGBTQ+ community if she were ever to step foot inside the White House. She's just as transphobic and homophobic as the rest of the Republican party; she's just done a better job of hiding it.

Her fellow Republicans may have tried to paint the former South Carolina governor and ambassador to the United Nations as pro-LGBTQ+ as a way of discrediting her among the MAGA base, but her opinions on the queer community are just as disgusting and harmful as the rest of them.

You might be tempted to think that Haley isn't all bad because back in 2017, she demanded authorities in Chechnya investigate reports that gay men were being rounded up and tortured, but don't let her fool you. Her level of transphobia and homophobia is more insidious than Trump's because she's better at downplaying while every other word out of his mouth is full of hate.

On Mar. 4, 2024, Haley won the Washington, D.C. primary for Republican Party. As reported by The New York Times, not only does that mean that she beat Trump in the primary, but Haley also became the first-ever woman to win a Republican primary. Nonetheless, this isn’t enough of a reason to cheer Haley on and/or be under the impression that she’s a little better than Trump when it comes to LGBTQ+ community… because she is not.

Scroll through to see the six most egregious examples of Nikki Haley’s anti-LGBTQ+ hate.

1. She doesn't think trans girls belong in sports

In December, 2023, Haley spewed vile hate about trans girls in sports, while sneakily avoiding the word “trans” while being interviewed by Linsey Davis on ABC Live.

“They can find a place for trans kids to play sports, but biological boys should not be playing in girls’ sports,” she said, according to reporting by The Advocate. “My daughter ran track in high school. I don’t know how I would even have that conversation with her. How do we tell our girls that it’s OK to have a biological boy in their locker room? It’s not. In no scenario.”

She continued to spew more right-wing anti-trans talking points, saying, “We have to remember that strong girls become strong women. Strong women become strong leaders. That doesn’t happen by putting biological boys in women’s sports. You’ve got women who have worked so hard all their life to really get to points in high school and college where they want to, and to have a biological man, who’s physiologically different, athletically, go and take that away from those women, no, we’re not gonna erase the women like that. You can’t do that.”

2. She blames trans girls for rising suicide rates

Last June, at a town hall event in Iowa hosted by CNN’s Jake Tapper, Haley invoked her daughter's name again, this time to rant about how trans girls in sports are to blame for teenage girls contemplating suicide — a baseless and damaging claim.

"My daughter ran track in high school. I don’t even know how I would have that conversation with her," she said, according to reporting by NBC News. "How are we supposed to get our girls used to the fact that biological boys are in their locker rooms? And then we wonder why a third of our teenage girls seriously contemplated suicide last year. We should be growing strong girls, confident girls."

3. She doesn't think the "Don't Say Gay" bill is harsh enough

Last year, Haley told a New Hampshire audience that Ron DeSantis’ anti-LGBTQ+ “Don’t Say Gay Bill” — a hugely controversial piece of legislation that bans classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity through third grade — didn’t go “far enough.”

“Basically what it said was you shouldn’t be able to talk about gender before third grade,” Haley said, reported The Guardian. “I’m sorry. I don’t think that goes far enough.”

4. She doesn't believe in gender affirming care for minors

Haley has made it clear that she thinks children under the age of 18 shouldn't have access to gender-affirming surgery —something that is extremely rare — or even puberty blockers. She has also pushed the Republican party line that these decisions are a matter of parental rights.

"If an adult decides that they want to transition, they are welcome to do that," she said in an interview on CBS Morning. "But we're talking about kids. You can't even get a tattoo until you're 18. You have to have parental permission for that. So let's be really careful before we even get -- I think it's such a slippery slope that parents don't want that part talked about at school," she said, adding she doesn't think the issue should be a part of K-12 schooling "at all."

5. She had a homophobic pastor open her first campaign rally

Haley kicked off her presidential campaign last July with an invocation from anti-LGBTQ+ pastor and televangelist John Hagee. Hagee is a controversial figure because of his anti-semitic, anti-catholic, and deeply homophobic remarks — including blaming Hurricane Katrina on a planned Pride parade and claiming that the antichrist will be gay, US News reports.

6. She upheld the gay marriage ban

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Haley's anti-LBTQ+ stance is nothing new; back in 2013, when she was the governor of South Carolina, she opposed a federal lawsuit that sought to overturn the state's constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. She said she was upholding the constitution and claimed that marriage should be "between a man and a woman."

"The citizens of South Carolina spoke … they spoke something that I, too, believe, which is marriage should be between a man and a woman," Haley told reporters after she spoke at an S.C. Chamber of Commerce event, The State reports. "I'm going to stand by the people of this state, stand by the constitution, I'm going to support it and fight for it every step of the way."