LGBTQ health groups sue Trump over orders targeting diversity, transgender rights

Nine LGBTQ, health and HIV organizations sued the Trump administration Thursday over three executive orders targeting transgender people and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, which they say have hobbled their ability to provide critical health services by demanding they ignore key parts of an individual’s identity.

Based in six different states, the groups are challenging President Trump’s orders to terminate DEI programs and “equity-related” grants and declaring that the government recognizes only two sexes, male and female. Each of the orders puts the organizations, which serve historically marginalized populations, at risk of losing their federal funding.

“The Executive Orders together target Plaintiffs and the people they serve for opprobrium and exclusion from services that receive federal financial assistance because of who they are,” they say in the lawsuit, filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

The groups, represented by Lambda Legal, an LGBTQ civil rights organization, are asking the court to temporarily block enforcement of the orders while litigation continues. They argue the executive orders violate their constitutional rights and punish organizations that acknowledge the existence of transgender people.

Tyler TerMeer, CEO of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation — the lead plaintiff in the case — said the government froze the group’s federal funding as “an attempt to intimidate us into silence.”

The orders could make it more difficult for health organizations to tailor their services to their communities, said Jose Abrigo, director of Lambda Legal’s HIV Project.

“A lot of the services they provide are required by the government to target services to minority populations — specifically Black, Indigenous people of color, Asian communities, transgender communities — because these funds recognize, based on empirical data, that these populations need targeted services,” Abrigo said in an interview. “The inability to address the history of systemic discrimination, either in the form of race discrimination or transgender discrimination, poses an existential threat to them.”

“How can an LGBTQ center exist without recognizing the existence of trans folks?” he said. “How can an HIV organization exist if they cannot recognize the fact that HIV disproportionately affects mainly Black communities?”

Carla Smith, CEO of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center in New York — often abbreviated to the Center — said her organization, a plaintiff in Thursday’s lawsuit, felt a responsibility to challenge Trump’s orders because they directly impact the population it was created to serve.

Founded in 1983 during New York’s AIDS epidemic, the Center has sought to provide a safe and affirming space for LGBTQ activism and community building for decades. Today, its services range from mental health and addiction services to family counseling and job training, according to the group’s website.

Like other organizations named in the lawsuit, the Center’s focus on systemic inequality among LGBTQ people and communities of color made it a prime target of Trump’s orders, which say diversity and equity-based programs amount to “illegal and immoral discrimination.”

“We offer a range of services to the community using federal funds that have been put at risk by these executive orders — there's a lot of services that we provide that are sort of categorized in the DEI framework,” Smith said in an interview.

“The implications for our community are substantial,” she said. “We have made so much progress over the years, and yet now we're taking this step back where community members are being dehumanized and forced into the closet and are afraid of not being able to access the support that is lifesaving support for them.”

Since taking office on Jan. 20, Trump has signed several executive orders targeting LGBTQ Americans and directed administration officials to remove references to transgender and nonbinary people from government websites. Protests erupted outside the Stonewall Monument in New York this weekend after “LGBTQ” was shorted to “LGB” on the National Park Service website.

The president and his allies have railed against what they call “radical gender ideology” and have sought to end federal support for gender-transition treatments like puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgeries for transgender youth up to 19. An education-related order also targets social transition, which does not involve any medical intervention.

“I think one of the things that needs to be recognized is that, when we talk about gender-affirming care, it is meeting people where they are at and providing care for the whole person,” said Jessyca Leach, CEO of Prisma Community Care in Phoenix, also a plaintiff in Thursday’s case. “If we cannot recognize a gender-expansive individual for who they are, we can't provide them with health care. It's impossible.”

Prisma, formerly the Southwest Center for HIV/AIDS, offers primary care, mental health services, substance abuse treatment and reproductive health care to thousands of people across Maricopa County, Ariz. It’s also the county’s — the most populous in Arizona — largest privately owned facility providing free HIV and sexually transmitted disease testing.

In late January, the health center lost its ability to draw grant funding awarded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Leach said in an interview. Later, the CDC informed her that the funds had been terminated in compliance with Trump’s executive orders.

Leach briefly considered closing before the funds were restored, a move that would have had a substantial impact on not just the local LGBTQ community but the local community as a whole, which benefits from programs targeting low-income residents.

“The downstream is devastating,” Leach said. “Right now is devastating, but when you start tracing how far organizations like mine reach, I don’t even know how to quantify it. By trying to take organizations like mine down with these executive orders, you are not just taking us down, you are taking down a large swath of the population.”

Renee Lau, a senior projects coordinator with Baltimore Safe Haven, a transgender-led nonprofit in Maryland, said the group is “devastated” by the Trump administration’s steps to roll back transgender rights, but noted that his targeting of the organization won’t just impact trans people.

“We are a full-service organization that not only provides services to the LGBT community, but to the entire community,” Lau said Thursday. “Our outreach program, our special outreach program, reaches everybody. And if you come into our drop-in center, it doesn't matter who you are, what group of people you are, whether you're marginalized or not, if you need housing or you need services, you're going to get by the time you leave our building.”

Topics

Trump Cuts Target Next Generation of Scientists and Public Health Leaders

A core group of so-called disease detectives, who track outbreaks, was apparently spared. But other young researchers are out of jobs.
The New York Times - 3d
Trump threatens to withhold federal funds from Maine over transgender athletes

President Trump is threatening to withhold federal funds from Maine if it continues allowing transgender athletes to compete in girls’ and women’s sports in defiance of a recent executive order. ...
The Hill - 4h
'We are the federal law': Trump, Maine governor clash over transgender athletes

President Trump and Maine’s Democratic Gov. Janet Mills briefly quarreled Friday at a National Governors Association session at the White House after Trump told a meeting of Republican governors he ...
The Hill - 2h
Trump spars with Maine’s governor at the White House over transgender athletes

Trump sparred with Maine’s Democratic governor during a meeting of governors at the White House, with Gov. Janet Mills telling the Trump, “We’ll see you in court,” over his push to deny federal ...
NBC News - 1h
Tense moments between Trump, Maine governor on transgender executive order, reporters say

Reporters covering President Trump's working session with U.S. governors are noting his tense exchange involving Maine Gov. Janet Mills regarding the executive order on transgender athletes. CBS ...
CBS News - 1h
Trump Tests Fed’s Independence With Order Expanding Authority Over Agencies

A directive calling for oversight over the central bank’s regulatory and supervisory responsibilities has set off alarm.
The New York Times - 1d
LGBTQ+ community in Germany rally against rise of far right ahead of elections

Community grapples with fear over ‘proliferation and normalisation of anti-queer and anti-trans sentiment in politics and the media’. They poured on to streets across Germany by the thousands, ...
The Guardian - 3h
'See you in court': Trump and Maine governor clash over trans athlete order

President Trump called out Maine Gov. Janet Mills at a meeting of governors at the White House over her state not complying with his executive order to ban transgender athletes from women's sports.
NBC News - 2h
Fresh executive order targets sanctuary cities, federal aid for undocumented migrants

The action marks Trump’s latest attempt to crack down on illegal immigration.
Politico - 1d