Watch: GLAAD national ad features terrifying potential future under Project 2025

GLAAD is airing a terrifying new television advertisement nationally this week highlighting a future in America under the Republican Project 2025 plan.

The spot, which ran on MSNBC Monday morning as the Republican National Convention got underway, is scheduled to air again on Friday during Morning Joe. It presents a chilling vision of a future where LGBTQ+ rights have been systematically erased and immerses viewers in a world where the community is pushed back into the closet and stripped of freedoms.

The ad opens in a public school classroom in September 2025. A Black woman teacher calls her diverse group of students to attention: “Okay, kids, time for the pledge.” The children remain seated, reading from small red notebooks, and with unnerving North Korea-like uniformity, recite a revised Pledge of Allegiance: “I pledge allegiance to the flag and to the president of the United States of America, to the biblical values for which our country stands and to the natural order of man and woman under God. Loyal to the president at all times with liberty and justice for all.” A stone-faced white man, a minder, oversees this scene, emphasizing the authoritarian oversight envisioned by the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025.

In a press release, Sarah Kate Ellis, GLAAD’s president and CEO, stressed the moment’s urgency. She described Project 2025 as “an assault on every American,” warning that it would replace democratic freedoms with authoritarianism and undo progress for marginalized communities. Ellis pointed out that the plan would end marriage equality, abortion access, and non-discrimination laws, creating “a weaker America where liberty and justice are not granted to all Americans.” She also noted that it would give tax breaks to corporations, raise taxes on the middle class, allow employers to eliminate overtime pay, ban Medicare from negotiating drug prices, and call for firing government employees not loyal to the president.

Project 2025, a radical blueprint from the Heritage Foundation, is at the heart of this controversy. The 900-page manifesto outlines executive orders and regulatory changes designed to overhaul the U.S. government. It proposes eliminating non-discrimination protections, eradicating federal funding for DEI programs, and dismantling LGBTQ+ rights. Specific measures include eliminating gender-affirming care, banning discussions of gender identity and sexual orientation in public schools, and excluding transgender people from participating in sports aligned with their gender identity. Additionally, it aims to “ban taxpayer funding for sex change surgeries” and prevent schools from “promoting gender transition.” Thedocument also calls for reinstating the ban on transgender Americans’ service in the armed forces, emphasizing, “The military should prioritize readiness and unit cohesion over accommodating gender ideology.”

Moreover, Project 2025 aims to eliminate the Department of Education entirely, shifting control of all education policies to state and local governments. It also proposes mandating ROTC participation in schools: “Require schools receiving federal funds to reinstate ROTC programs and require participation for high school graduation,” the document states. These changes reflect a broader vision to reshape American society along conservative lines.

GLAAD’s ad, with its stark and evocative imagery, serves as a potent warning. It forces viewers to confront a future where children are indoctrinated into a new, authoritarian loyalty. The ad’s message is clear: the dangers of Project 2025 are not theoretical but immediate and real.

The implications of Project 2025 extend far beyond the LGBTQ+ community. The plan calls for purging government employees who do not align with right-wing ideologies and restricting reproductive rights. It also proposes transforming the Department of Homeland Security into a militarized force, fundamentally altering American diplomacy to prioritize anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ+gendas. Additionally, the plan includes other policies, such as allowing employers to eliminate overtime pay, banning Medicare from negotiating drug prices, and giving substantial tax breaks to corporations while raising taxes on the middle class.

The Heritage Foundation has positioned itself at the center of the 2024 election, while former President Donald Trump has denied knowing anything about the plan—another of his falsehoods given that dozens of Trump allies have created and promoted the plan.According toThe Washington Post, Trump allies at Heritage have preemptively declared the 2024 election illegitimate, presenting scenarios of election interference to justify preemptive measures. Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, and others involved in a “war game” claimed that the Biden administration was already engaged in a conspiracy to influence the election, the paper reports.

Recently, Roberts declared in an interview on Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast that a new revolution is already underway in the U.S., and it “will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.” He emphasized that his organization’s role is to “institutionalize Trumpism” and that they are “in the process of taking this country back.”

With the November election quickly approaching, democracy remains at stake.

“Shame on us if we don’t do everything we can to stop this dangerous plan to turn the clock back,” Ellis said.

Watch GLAAD’s new spot, “The Pledge,” below.

EXPOSING PROJECT 2025 | "The Pledge"www.youtube.com