When did claims about Donald Trump's sexuality first appear in the media?

1. What the record here actually covers — sexual-misconduct allegations, not claims about Trump’s sexuality

The documents in your search results are overwhelmingly focused on allegations that Trump harassed, groped or sexually assaulted multiple women across decades, and on subsequent lawsuits and verdicts — for example, the 1997 Jill Harth lawsuit, allegations surfaced in books and press in the 1990s, and E. Jean Carroll’s litigation that led to a 2023 $5 million judgment for sexual abuse ^{[3] [1] [2]}. These sources treat Trump’s conduct and accusations against him as separate from any sustained media narrative about his sexual orientation; they do not claim to trace or document the first media mention of his sexuality (available sources do not mention a first appearance of claims about Trump’s sexuality).

2. Timeline the sources do provide — persistent accusations from the 1970s onward

Multiple outlets compiled timelines showing allegations stretching back decades: The Guardian and other outlets list accusations from the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, and Time and 19th News trace waves of women who publicly accused Trump during and after his 2016 campaign ^{[4] [5] [1]}. The references include litigation in the late 1990s (Harth) and repeated public allegations and reporting around 2016–2017 that consolidated many accounts into national coverage ^{[3] [5] [6]}.

3. Public discussion vs. specific claims about sexual orientation — distinction matters

Several pieces here discuss Trump’s remarks about other people’s sexualities or mocking of gay people (e.g., Business Insider citing Maggie Haberman’s reporting that Trump speculated about staffers’ sexualities and mocked gay people), which may feed interpretive commentary but is not the same as media claims about his own sexuality ^[7]. Human Rights Watch, the ACLU and GLAAD documents focus on policy toward LGBTQ people and Trump’s rhetoric and actions affecting LGBT rights, which again is different from reporting asserting a particular sexual orientation for Trump ^{[8] [9] [10]}.

4. Where to look next if you want a first-media-mention date

Because the provided sources do not record when claims about Trump’s own sexuality first appeared, a focused archival search of older newspapers, magazine profiles, gossip columns, broadcast transcripts and digital archives would be necessary. Searching primary archives (e.g., New York tabloids, gossip columns from the 1970s–1990s, and television interview transcripts) — sources not included here — is the appropriate next step; current reporting in your set does not answer the question (available sources do not mention a first appearance of claims about Trump’s sexuality).

5. Competing framings and implicit agendas in the available reporting

News outlets and advocacy groups here frame Trump through different lenses: timeline and investigative pieces (The Guardian, Time) center accusers’ accounts and legal outcomes ^{[4] [5]}; legal reporting (AP, CNN, PBS) emphasizes court rulings and appeals such as the Carroll verdict and Trump’s Supreme Court petition ^{[2] [11] [12]}; advocacy groups (GLAAD, ACLU, Human Rights Watch) highlight policy impacts on LGBTQ communities and portray Trump as hostile to LGBT rights ^{[10] [9] [8]}. These distinct agendas shape what is asked and answered: criminal/ civil liability and policy records are documented here, while questions about Trump’s private sexual orientation are not sourced in this set (available sources do not mention a first appearance of claims about Trump’s sexuality).

6. Bottom line for your original question

The assembled sources document extensive reporting and litigation about Donald Trump’s alleged sexual misconduct from the 1970s onward and cover public commentary about others’ sexualities and Trump’s LGBTQ-related policy positions, but they do not identify when claims specifically about Donald Trump’s sexual orientation first appeared in the media. To answer “when did claims about Donald Trump’s sexuality first appear,” you will need targeted searches of archival gossip, profile and tabloid coverage not included among these results (available sources do not mention a first appearance of claims about Trump’s sexuality).