Among Donald Trumps Cabinet nominees, its hard to choose who is the most dangerous to LGBTQ+ rights. But its easy to pick out who is the most dangerous to LGBTQ+ health: Robert Kennedy Jr. As the nominee to run the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Kennedy has the potential to make literal life-and-death decisions about the nations health. But his crackpot ideas are a direct threat to the very issues that can matter most to the LGBTQ+ community. Much has been made of Kennedys conspiracy-ridden, fringe beliefs. He believes that vaccines cause autism, even though abundant evidence has shown no link. He has said that COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people and the people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese. He thinks fluoride in the water supply, which is proven to reduce dental disease, can cause everything from arthritis to bone cancer. He believes that Prozac is a reason for the outbreak of school shootings. Related Robert F. Kennedy Jr. reveals plans to fire 600 federal health workers The Trump ally and anti-vax conspiracist takes aim at the agencies he loathes. But not as much has been made about how Kennedys ideas have dire implications for the health of LGBTQ+ Americans. For one thing, the would-be secretary of HHS is an AIDS denialist. In his 2021 book blasting former public health official Anthony Fauci, Kennedy sneers at the theology that HIV is the sole cause of AIDS. Dive deeper every day Join our newsletter for thought-provoking commentary that goes beyond the surface of LGBTQ+ issues Subscribe to our Newsletter today No one has been able to point to a study that demonstrates their hypothesis using accepted scientific proofs, he says of the thousands of scientists who have demonstrated beyond a doubt the connection between the virus and the disease. Perhaps just as disturbing as the stench of homophobia that underpins what Kennedy thinks is the reason for AIDS. He cites lifestyle exposures, including poppers, a popular drug among promiscuous gays. All in all, it wasnt the virus killing people but compulsive homosexual behavior, Kennedy told podcaster Joe Rogan just last year.That was the argument that the right wing used during the Reagan administration to delay and deny helping the thousands of gay men who were dying. Kennedy seems happy to revisit it, which is a chilling hint at what he might do as secretary. For example, if MPOX comes back with a roar, what would Kennedy do? Hes already suggested that its emergency was a conspiracy among the WHO, Big Pharma, and Bill Gates. He already hates vaccines. Would he mobilize the force of the government to stop the spread of the disease in the gay community, when he seems prone to blame the victim to begin with?Meanwhile, you can forget about federal help for an AIDS vaccine. Kennedy doesnt believe in the virus and he doesnt believe in vaccines, so hes never going to support more funding for that effort. Worse still, he will be spreading doubt about HIV, potentially leading to unsafe behavior and an increase in infections.Then theres transgender health care. Kennedy is blatantly anti-trans. I am against people participating in womens sports who are biologically male,Kennedy said on CNN. Moreover, his ideas about gender dysphoria are every bit as bizarre as most of his other beliefs. He thinks chemicals in the water are making kids trans. Theres atrazine throughout our water supply, Kennedy insists. If you, in a lab, put atrazine in a tank full of frogs, it will chemically castrate and forcibly feminize every frog in there. And 10 percent of the frogs, the male frogs, will turn into fully viable females able to produce viable eggs. If its doing that to frogs, theres a lot of other evidence that its doing it to human beings as well.Kennedy shares this scientific theory with that well-known medical researcher, Alex Jones. Its one thing for your crazy uncle to share his looney theories with you at the family dinner table. Its entirely enough for him to have control of the federal apparatus where he can do something about them. Kennedy has said that youth experiencing gender dysphoria should not be allowed medical treatment until they are adults. We must protect our children, he said last May. That puts Kennedy squarely on the side of the rightwing effort to put legal restrictions in place around care for transgender youth. As secretary of HHS, he will be in a powerful position to issue guidelines that will make it harder if not impossible for trans youth to get medical care. He could take his beliefs a step further and push for even broader restrictions regardless of age. This is the man that Donald Trump wants to go wild on health. Even the servile Republicans in the Senate are having a hard time with Kennedys nomination. But that doesnt mean that his nomination wont be approved. If Trump decides to make a show of his power, Republicans will buckle. Americans, especially LGBTQ+ Americans, will be the ones to suffer the consequences. Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.