GLAAD’s Trump Accountability Project Continues to Track Anti-LGBTQ Actions from Administration

NEW YORK – GLAAD, the world’s largest LGBTQ media advocacy organization, today released a list of 25 ways President Donald Trump and his administration have attacked the LGBTQ community since taking office on January 20, 2017. The list stems from GLAAD’s Trump Accountability Project, which tracks the Administration’s anti-LGBTQ movements and calls on media to expose them. From erasing any mention of the LGBTQ community from the White House website minutes after being sworn into office to just recently hosting at the White House a slew of anti-LGBTQ activists who repeatedly use so-called “religious exemptions” to harm LGBTQ Americans, the Trump Administration has been working tirelessly to systematically erase the hard-fought progress of the community.

From Day One of the Trump Presidency, GLAAD has been dedicated to hold this administration accountable, expose anti-LGBTQ policies, and stand together with every marginalized community to resist the attacks made by the most anti-LGBTQ administration in recent memory. Learn more of the anti-LGBTQ record of the entire Trump Administration by visiting GLAAD’s Trump Accountability Project.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION: 25 Ways President Trump has Attacked the LGBTQ Community

1. 1.20.17 – Minutes after Donald Trump was sworn into office, any mention of the LGBTQ community was erased from White House, Department of State, and Department of Labor websites. 
2.  1.27.17 – President Donald Trump issued an executive order to indefinitely ban Syrian refugees from entering the United States. This ban includes LGBTQ refugees fleeing the nation in fear of discrimination. 
3. 2.02.17 – ABC News reports that after previously committing to protecting LGBTQ Americans from discrimination, President Trump and his administration had drafted a “License to Discriminate” executive order which would usher in across-the-board discrimination against the LGBTQ community. 
4. 2.22.17 – With help of Attorney General Jeff Session, President Trump rescinded Title IX protections for transgender students in our nation’s schools. 
5. 3.20.17 – Trump Administration erases the LGBTQ community from The National Survey of Older Americans Act Participants and the Annual Program Performance Report for Centers for Independent Living, key surveys that are used to help provide care to American seniors – including disability, transportation, and caregiver support needs.
6. 3.24.17 – President Trump appointed anti-LGBTQ activist and former Heritage Foundation employee Roger Severino to lead the Health and Human Services Civil Rights Office, putting the LGBTQ community at risk of losing access to critical and affordable health care.
7. 3.28.17 – Under his proposed budget for the U.S. Congress, The Trump Administration offered to cut HIV and AIDS research funding under the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
8. 3.28.17 – The Trump Administration cancels plans to add the LGBTQ community to its upcoming 2020 U.S. Census, a survey conducted every decade by the federal government to help collect data about living Americans and the United States of America.
9. 4.10.17 – A ProPublica investigation reveals the Trump Administration appointed James Renne, a key staffer involved in the Bush-era anti-LGBTQ purge of gay government employees, to a senior role at the Department of Agriculture.
10. 4.14.17 – The Trump Administration files to dismiss a lawsuit accusing North Carolina of discriminating against the LGBTQ community in response to HB2, despite the similarities of the HB142 replacement.
11.  5.4.17 – President Trump signs a “religious liberty” executive order. Although this EO does not target LGBTQ Americans, it is the first step in what could be a broader permission slip for discrimination against the overall LGBTQ community. 
12.  5.8.17 – Department of Agriculture issues new so-called “religious freedom” policy statement, a move praised by the anti-LGBTQ Family Research Council. 
13.  5.22.17 – The Trump Administration grants White House press credentials to a “reporter” from Infowars, a conspiracy outlet that regularly peddles dangerous, offensive, and anti-LGBTQ content. 
14.  5.23.17 – The Trump Administration reveals their budget which includes proposed slashes to programs and departments critical to the LGBTQ community, including Medicaid, Planned Parenthood, and the Center for Disease Control’s HIV and AIDS programs.
15.  6.1.17 – President Trump declines to issue a presidential proclamation designating June as LGBTQ Pride Month, breaking with an eight-year precedent set by President Barack Obama to honor and support LGBTQ Americans during Pride Month.
16.  6.15.17 – The Department of Education rolls back the Office for Civil Rights’ expansive approach to investigating civil rights complaints that protect LGBTQ students and other marginalized communities from discrimination at school.
17.  6.15.17 – The Department of Education invites Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council, two anti-LGBTQ organizations, to be speakers for a day-long conference on engaging fathers in their children’s education and welfare.
18.  6.15.17 – Department of Commerce removes sexual orientation and gender identity from the agency’s Equal Employment Policy. Only after fierce opposition did Department of Commerce Secretary Ross change it back.
19.  6.16.17 – An obtained internal memo from the Department of Education Office for Civil Rights reveals guidelines to dismiss complaints about bathroom access filed by transgender students. 
20.  6.17.17 – Six members of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS resigned saying that President Trump “simply does not care” about combating the HIV and AIDS epidemic.
21.  6.27.17 – The Trump Administration failed to mention the LGBTQ community in their National HIV Testing Day statement. 
22.  6.28.17 – The Department of Justice rejected reporters from covering a DOJ Pride event hosted by LGBTQ affinity groups for federal workers.
23.  6.29.17 – Reports revealed President Trump hired anti-transgender activist, Bethany Kozma, to the Office of Gender Equality and Women’s Rights at the US Agency for International Development.
24. 7.10.17 – In a closed-door and unannounced opportunity, President Trump poses for a photograph with notorious anti-LGBTQ activists who wish to promote so-called “religious exemptions” that would harm LGBTQ Americans across the nation.
25. 7.12.17 – President Trump grants a one-on-one interview with Pat Robertson, a longtime anti-LGBTQ activist and Televangelist.

###