For the first two years of his presidency, Donald Trump has refused to recognize the month of June as LGBTQ Pride Month. This year, he’s chosen to roll out a series of new policy proposals to dismantle nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ people — while attempting to profit off newly issued “LGBTQ for Trump” Pride gear.
These policies -- which specifically threaten the lives of trans people -- prove what we’ve already known: Trump thinks LGBTQ Americans are second-class citizens unworthy of protection.
Today, the Trump administration proposed a new rule to remove gender identity from nondiscrimination protections in federally funded health care, a move that would allow providers to deny care for trans people.
Wall Street Journal: “The Trump administration on Friday moved to roll back health-care protections for transgender patients by replacing an Obama-era policy that expanded nondiscrimination guidelines. The proposal is part of a broader effort by the administration to curb protections for people whose personal identity or gender doesn’t conform to their birth sex.”
Wall Street Journal: “The current rule offers gender-identity protections for the 1.4 million transgender adults and 150,000 transgender teens aged 13 to 17 in the U.S., according to the Williams Institute, a research group at the University of California, Los Angeles Law School that studies sexual orientation and gender-identity policy.”
Earlier this week, the Trump administration also announced a separate proposal to reverse the Equal Access Rule in public housing, allowing homeless shelters to deny housing to trans people.
CBS News: “The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced a new rule proposal on Wednesday that would roll back Obama-era protections for transgender people living in homeless shelters. Housing and anti-discrimination groups are concerned the new rule would allow shelter owners or managers to bar transgender people from entry based on religious beliefs. It could also force transgender women to share bathrooms and bedrooms with men, and vice-versa.”
National Center for Transgender Equality: “One in five transgender individuals have experienced homelessness at some point in their lives. Family rejection and discrimination and violence have contributed to a large number of transgender and other LGBQ-identified youth who are homeless in the United States – an estimated 20-40% of the more than 1.6 million homeless youth.”
New reporting today revealed the White House is finalizing a policy to allow discrimination against same-sex couples by adoption agencies.
Axios: “Obama banned adoption and foster-care agencies from receiving federal funding if they refused to work with same-sex couples. Religious organizations have consistently bristled at that policy, arguing that they’re being forced to contradict their beliefs. Administration officials said the White House is weighing two options: either rescinding those rules altogether, or adding an explicit exemption for religious organizations. The debate is mainly about which approach would hold up better in court, the officials said.”
And last week, the White House announced Trump’s opposition to House Democrats’ Equality Act, which would enshrine in federal law nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ Americans.
NBC News: “Trump opposes federal LGBTQ nondiscrimination bill, citing 'poison pills'”
Washington Blade: “With a vote on the Equality Act in the U.S. House expected on Friday, a senior administration official indicated exclusively to the Washington Blade that President Trump opposes the bill … ‘This bill in its current form is filled with poison pills that threaten to undermine parental and conscience rights,’ the senior administration official said via email.”
