He strongly disagrees that LGBTQIA+ people should be protected from discrimination. He promised to vote against codifying the right to marry for same-sex couples. And even though he has slightly adjusted his views, he has said in the past that he does not support abortions — even in cases of rape or incest.

Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance — and his voting record and views — just might be what is needed to energize and deliver votes to President Joe Biden in November by some of the LGBTQIA+ base who have been unenthusiastic or reluctant to vote for a second Biden term. Vance is scheduled to speak Wednesday night at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

“If there was any doubt left for LGBTQIA+ voters over who to choose in this election, the prospect of JD Vance a heartbeat away from the presidency should erase it,” said Byron E. Macfarlane, register of wills for Howard County, who is also gay. “He believes it should be legal to discriminate against us in employment and housing, opposes marriage equality, and wants to criminalize gender-affirming health care for trans youth.”

Anti-LGBTQIA+ rhetoric has been heard throughout the Republican National Convention. “Let me state this clearly: There are only two genders,” said Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson and Michigan Rep. John James verbally attacked transgender women playing sports. The announcement of Vance had the LGBTQ+ community bracing for even more attacks and what a Trump administration could mean for their rights.

Tia Hopkins — who became the state’s first openly nonbinary candidate elected to the Democratic Central Committee in 2022, alongside Antonio Bowens — said that Vance will make LGBTQIA+ voters “definitely motivated” to vote.

“He resonates with the homophobic sect of the Republican Party,” said the West Baltimore resident and the Young Democrats of Maryland national committee representative. For instance, Vance criticized the U.S. Census Bureau for a proposal to include questions about gender identity in surveys.

“Numbers don’t lie and JD is someone who will do everything possible to enable people to make ignorant arguments about the LGBTQ community without accurate data,” Hopkins said.

Two of the nation’s most recognizable LGBTQIA+ organizations immediately denounced the choice of Vance.

GLAAD condemned Vance and compiled more than a half-dozen ways they say Vance opposes the LGBTQIA+ community.

“LGBTQ Americans are taxpayers, family members, colleagues, classmates, neighbors and friends, and our concerns are the same as any Americans: our freedom to be ourselves to live in safety and dignity, the right to make private health care decisions, read books of our choosing, marry who we love, and not be discriminated against for who we are,” said GLAAD’s President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis. “Media must include LGBTQ people in all stories and conversations about policies affecting us and our families. Our concerns are not a ‘culture war’ sideshow—they are central to the core issues of this election, and the freedoms all Americans want to preserve and protect.”

GLAAD’s analysis of Trump’s campaigns and past executive orders, speeches, nominations and other official acts found 219 incidents they said would affect the rights of sexual and gender minorities.

The Human Rights Campaign said Trump’s choice of Vance made it clear “that a second Trump Administration would build on its legacy of being the most anti-LGBTQ+ in American history.”

Kelley Robinson, Human Rights Campaign president, called Vance a “MAGA clone” and Trump a “bully.”

“We are choosing between two fundamentally different visions of America,” Robinson said, casting the choice as between two MAGA “yes men“; and President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. “Everything is at stake and the contrast could not be clearer.”

The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment about Vance’s opposition.

Trump has claimed he has the support of LGBTQIA+ voters and attempted to broaden the party’s appeal. The party platform approved this year no longer explicitly opposes same-sex marriage.

“This platform is welcoming it’s inclusive,” Charles Moran, president of the Log Cabin Republicans, which represents conservative members of the LGBT+ community, told NBC News Tuesday. “This is the most radical and revolutionary way to make the Republican Party competitive in many years.”

The LGBTQIA+ community generally votes for Democrats.

A January poll from GLAAD showed that LGBTQ likely voters prefer President Joe Biden over Donald Trump by 53 percentage points nationwide, with just 15% of respondents supporting Trump. That gap swells to 57 percentage points in seven battleground states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

But Biden’s ability to lead and to inspire voting support following a dismal debate performance last month have some worried those factors could keep gender minorities away from the voting booth.

“No one is excited about Biden and I personally wish he would step aside. But I hope we all know we are voting for so much more than one person and we cannot let Trump back into the White House,” said Matthew Lengel, a 34-year-old pharmacist from Hampden. “I’m sick of the ‘woe is me’ attitude I am getting from so many of my friends. … We need to buckle up and unify to fight back against this maniacal, fascist political party.”

Lengel said he will vote for the person that will prevent Republicans from appointing more conservative Supreme Court justices.

Ryan McCloskey, who begrudgingly said Biden and Kamala Harris are the better of the two tickets, plans to vote for them in the election.

“This election just keeps getting worse,” lamented the 34-year-old architect, who is gay and lives in Mount Vernon.

“I will definitely be voting [for Biden] in order to save what protections we currently have as LGBTQIA+ people,” he said.

McCloskey said that Vance solidified his decision to vote against Trump — his mind was pretty much made up because of the Republican Party’s “attack on women’s right to choose” — and he’ll also encourage friends and family to do the same.

Lee Carpenter, principal at Offit Kurman, says his clients are already preparing to protect themselves and their families in case the legal landscape “shifts for the worse” with a Trump-Vance administration.

Carpenter noted Biden’s influence as vice president, and how his vocal support for same-sex marriage helped lead to marriage equality nationwide.

“As part of a second Trump administration, Vance could help roll back years of hard-won progress toward LGBTQ+ equality,” Carpenter said. “Now more than ever, my clients are anxious about what the future could hold.”

Lengel said he plans to get married at the courthouse before the end of the year if Trump wins to thwart anticipated attacks on same-sex marriage.

“But I’m afraid of a lot more than just my own rights. I have a lot of fear for trans people and women whom I already see facing many new challenges in life and health care due to the Supreme Court rulings. Also, I fear for all people that need social programs like Medicaid and Medicare if the Republicans win this election. They will hurt so many people,” he said.

Robert Greene, 51, said LGBTQIA+ rights, and the ability for the Supreme Court to further “enforce and erase laws” that will ultimately affect his freedoms, are motivating him this election. The Belvedere Square/Mid-Govans resident, who is a director of people and policies for an IT company, believes Vance would work to do that.

“I hate that politics have become so polarizing, but this is a matter of one person’s comfort versus another person’s right to live freely and privately without persecution,” he said.