Trump directives hit hard against LGBTQ and allies

The Trump administration directed all federal departments and agencies January 29 to take "prompt actions to end all programs that use taxpayer money to promote or reflect gender ideology."

The directive came through an Office of Personnel Management (OPM) memorandum January 29 from Acting OPM Director Charles Ezell. The memo gave top government officials fewer than two days to complete several actions and until Friday, February 7, to complete others.

Among the actions dictated to agencies and departments through the memo were to:

Review all agency programs, contracts, and grants and terminate any that "promote or inculcate" gender ideology,

Review all agency email systems and turn off any settings that prompt users to identify their pronouns,

Terminate any agency position that involves "inculcating and promoting" gender ideology,

Take down all websites, social media accounts, and other media directed at the public that "inculcate or promote" gender ideology, and

Identify bathrooms and other intimate spaces as available to people by "biological sex and not gender identity."

There are several more actions called for by the memorandum, which is said to be in response to Trump's January 20 executive order entitled, "Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government."

The OPM memo gives agency heads a week to create a list of actions they have taken and plan to take to enforce Trump's executive order.

Separately, on January 29, Trump signed an executive order that directs the Secretaries of Education and Health and Human Services to produce a strategy within 90 days (April 29) to eliminate and rescind federal funding for K-12 schools which include pro-LGBTQ-related discussions or policies. Specifically, the order, entitled "Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling," calls on the departments to eliminate "Federal funding or support for illegal and discriminatory treatment and indoctrination in K-12 schools, including based on gender ideology and discriminatory equity ideology."

The executive order also instructs the U.S. Attorney General to work with state attorneys general and local district attorneys to enforce the order and file legal action against teachers and school officials who violate the law. Such violations include efforts by teachers and officials to "facilitate" transitioning.

U.S. Rep. Mark Takano, chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, said February 1, "The Trump Administration is weaponizing the federal government against the transgender community and minorities—just like Project 2025's plan told him to. Trump's efforts to censor the 'T' from 'LGBT,' however, can't remove trans people from our community, and won't divide us. We must stand united against this hate. Republicans in Congress who are silent on Trump's gross abuses of federal power to target minorities are complicit in the damage and pain his attacks are causing Americans."

Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson said the DOE executive order makes clear the Trump administration wants to "limit the ability to talk about the very existence of LGBTQ+ people in our schools and keep all our children from being taught an honest, accurate history of our nation."

"[T]hey want to dictate to children, their parents, and educators what they can read, what they can learn, what they can say, and who they can be," said Robinson in a statement on HRC's website. "...They want to limit the ability to talk about the very existence of LGBTQ+ people in our schools and keep all our children from being taught an honest, accurate history of our nation."

Lambda Legal called the DOE executive order "an out-and-out attack on LGBTQ+ and transgender students, as well as educators, counselors, and school officials who treat such students with dignity and respect." A Lambda statement released January 29 said the order implicates which bathroom to use, what sports they can participate in, and force schools to inform parents if their student requests to be addressed by a different pronoun or name than they use at home.

The OPM memo and K-12 Schooling executive order were just the latest in a series of aggressive moves by the newly inaugurated second Trump administration against the LGBTQ community. Other actions have included:

A January 28 executive order, "Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation," claims "medical professionals are maiming and sterilizing a growing number of impressionable children under the radical and false claim that adults can change a child's sex through a series of irreversible medical interventions." It states the U.S. government "will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called 'transition' of a child from one sex to another," and defines child as anyone under 19.

A January 27 executive order, entitled "Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness," that states the military has been "afflicted with radical gender ideology to appease activists...." It states that "expressing a false 'gender identity' divergent from an individual's sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service." It states that gender dysphoria and shifting pronoun usage are inconsistent with troop readiness.

Some of the issues raised by these executive orders involve constitutional questions currently pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. The nine-member court is currently made up of three members appointed by Trump during his first term and three additional members who have been voting consistently with those three appointees, particularly on LGBTQ-related matters. The court heard oral arguments in December on a case, U.S. v. Skrmetti, to determine whether states can ban the use of gender dysphoria treatment on any child younger than 18.

The Supreme Court will hear arguments later this month, in Ames v. Ohio, about a straight female employee of the Ohio Department of Youth Services filed a lawsuit, arguing that a law banning sexual orientation discrimination should protect her. And the court agreed last month to hear an appeal, in Mahmoud v. Montgomery County, from parents who object to LGBTQ-inclusive storybooks in the classroom.

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