Inaugurating what he called “a Golden Age of Travel,” President-elect Donald Trump announced his nomination of Fox host and former Rep. Sean Duffy (R-WI) to be secretary of Transportation in his second administration.

Duffy, currently a co-host of The Bottom Line on Fox Business, will succeed Pete Buttigieg in the post if confirmed.

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The nomination adds another figure openly hostile to LGBTQ+ rights to an incoming administration poised to be stocked full of them, including Department of Defense nominee Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Education nominee Linda McMahon, Secretary of State nominee Marco Rubio, and Ambassador to Israel nominee Mike Huckabee, as well as a cast of self-loathing gay men including Ric Grennell for a “special missions” post, former Democrat-turned Trump bundler Bill White as Ambassador to Belgium, and billionaire Scott Bessent for Secretary of the Treasury.

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In his time in Congress, Duffy earned a score of zero in two out of the three terms he served, and his voting history reflects a consistent alignment with conservative policies that oppose LGBTQ+ rights.

Duffy is a vocal opponent of marriage equality, advocating for legislation that sought to define marriage strictly as between one man and one woman; sat out votes on the Equality Act, which prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in employment, housing and other areas; and voted in favor of Trump’s military ban on transgender service members.

Perhaps his most incongruous action related to LGBTQ+ rights was introducing legislation that would ban fetal genetic testing meant to determine sexual orientation, a restriction, in his words, that’s necessary to “protect the lives of unborn gay children.” Experts say there’s no evidence a “gay” gene even exists.

In 2023, Fox Nation, the digital arm of Duffy’s employer Fox News, presented the founders of Moms for Liberty, the collection of anti-LGBTQ+ scolds behind a majority of the book bans plaguing states over the last several years, a so-called “Patriot Award.” Duffy handed out the trophy.

“Over the past few years, parents like us have lost confidence about what our kids are learning in the classroom, until one organization became a beacon of hope for the rest of us,” Duffy said of the group.

What impact Duffy’s antagonism toward the LGBTQ+ community will have on his duties as Transportation secretary is unclear, but his far-right ideology is a sharp change in tenor from his predecessor.

While Buttigieg, an out father of two, has been a cheerleader for the Biden administration’s clean energy goals, Duffy is an outspoken opponent of electric vehicles, no doubt a litmus test for his selection.

The Fox News host’s selection may have also been a troll on Trump’s part, given Buttigieg’s frequent and rhetorically devastating appearances on the right-wing network. They earned the outgoing secretary the memorable moniker, “Slayer Pete.”

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