An Updated List on How the Trump-Pence Administration is Quietly Erasing Our Rights, One by One
We’re tracking the administration's constant attempts to erase LGBTQ people, communities of color, undocumented people, and women from the federal agenda.
Pushing the United Nations to erase all mentions of sexual and reproductive rights. Emboldening health care workers to deny services to LGBTQ patients. Trying to remove civil rights protections from transgender people by redefining gender.
Since taking office, the Trump-Pence administration has directed federal agencies to repeatedly attack communities that already face disproportionate discrimination. By censoring reports, editing websites, and issuing regulations, the administration is quietly erasing the reproductive rights and health care needs of communities of color, LGBTQ folks, women, and undocumented people.
Altogether, the attacks add up to a concerted effort to harm communities by weakening their federal protections against discrimination in health care — and even disrupt their access to care. The threat is especially pronounced for people who live at the intersection of multiple identities. For example, a queer immigrant woman would feel the effects of the Trump administration’s homophobic, racist, sexist, and anti-immigrant policies on multiple fronts.
The response to the attacks has been ferocious — with transgender people and allies across the country, for example, rallying before the White House to say: regardless of attacks by the Trump-Pence administration, trans communities #WontBeErased.
This list is regularly updated.
Censoring Public Documents
Sexual and Reproductive Health Care
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Fall 2017
Lesbian and bisexual women's health care information removed: HHS deleted resources for lesbian and bisexual women from its women’s health website.
Learn more -
Late 2017
Women's health care information removed: Lifesaving information on detection, treatment, and access to no-cost screenings for breast cancer was removed from the website of the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office on Women’s Health. -
November 2017
Health information for women of color removed: HHS’s Office of Women’s Health also removed the “Minority Women’s Health” section from its website, including pages on heart disease, diabetes, HIV/AIDS, mental health, domestic violence, and other health issues for Afrian American, Latina, and Asian women. -
December 2017
Health-related words are banned: The White House directed the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to omit a list of forbidden words — including fetus, evidence-based, transgender, and diversity — from the agency’s budget request.
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February 2018
Health care information removed: The State Department removed information on reproductive health and racial, ethnic, and sexual discrimination from its annual report on global human rights.
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March 2018
Title X webinars removed: The HHS Office of Population Affairs (OPA) removed 28 webinars, including those to help Title X grantees. -
October 2018
Sexual and reproductive health terms banned: Reports emerged about talks in the State Department to ban the use of terms such as “sexual and reproductive health” and “comprehensive sexuality education” — on the apparent grounds that such language “promote[s] abortion and sexual activity among young people.” -
Late 2018
Spanish-language information about HIV/AIDS removed: Webpages in Spanish about HIV/AIDS were removed or made less accessible on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website, including content on actions the CDC is taking to prevent the spread of HIV.
Affordable Care Act (ACA)
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January 2017
Widespread deletions of Affordable Care Act web content: The administration “surgically removed” references to the ACA from many government websites, including data on the health care law’s impact and links to enroll in coverage at HealthCare.gov. -
January 2017
Access to ACA webpages removed: HHS removed pages about the ACA from its Office of Minority Health (OMH) website, including information about improving health care for minority communities and OMH’s role in implementing the health care law. -
January–September 2017
Whole website with materials about the ACA: HHS removed an 85-page website called “Facts and Figures,” which had included years’ worth of publications describing programs offered and rights guaranteed under the ACA, how the law affects coverage for underserved populations, and more. -
April–May 2017
ACA content removed from Title X website: The HHS Office of Population Affairs (OPA) removed 10 pages related to the ACA from its website on Title X, the only federal program dedicated to affordable birth control. The deleted content includes resources to help Title X’s thousands of providers implement the ACA. -
November 2018
Information removed from HealthCare.gov: During the Open Enrollment period to sign up for the ACA, information on how to apply for health care coverage was deleted and hidden from HealthCare.gov, and links to for-profit consumer assistance brokers. - December 2018
Information removed on how to access health care: The HealthCare.gov website removed information on how to apply for open enrollment for the ACA. The information was removed just days before the enrollment deadline, when many users would be accessing the website.
Sexual Assault and Sex Education
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August 2017
Report on sexual assault removed: The Trump-Pence administration removed a 2014 report on sexual violence — “Rape And Sexual Assault: Renewed Call To Action” — from the White House website. -
March 2018
Mentions of contraception, abortion, and sex education removed: Officials from HHS, the Agency for International Development, and the U.S. Mission to the United Nations pressed dignitaries at the UN Commission on the Status of Women to remove references to contraception, abortion, and sex education from a statement laying out global standards for gender equality.
Immigration
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December 2017–June 2018
Webpage aimed at helping refugees changed: The State Department removed “Frequently Asked Questions” pages designed by previous administrations to help refugees, and which had been cited by academic reports and amicus curiae briefs filed in opposition to the Trump administration’s executive orders against immigration (December 2017–June 2018) -
February 2018
Inclusive immigration language removed: In the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office deleted the longstanding description of the U.S. as a “nation of immigrants” from its mission statement. -
May 2018
Asylum training documents removed: The Department of Homeland Security removed hundreds of pages of instructions for officials who evaluate the claims of asylum seekers from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website. The deleted webpages also had been used by lawyers to help clients navigate the asylum process. -
October 2019
Widespread changes to the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) website: ORR changed “unaccompanied child” to the dehumanizing “alien child” and increased use of the word “alien” sevenfold on its website. The site also deleted information about rights, services and benefits for immigrant families; added harsh language to describe children in its custody; and removed the staff directory — which had included contact information for the media.
LGBTQ and Civil Rights
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February 2017
Webpages on transgender-protective executive order removed: The Department of Labor scrubbed references to an executive order that had banned discrimination by federal contractors against transgender workers and made gender identity a protected class. -
2017 and 2018
Webpages houseless individuals and students removed: The Department of Housing and Urban Development removed resources to help keep houseless transgender people safe in shelters, and the Department of Education removed guidance about protections for keeping transgender students safe in schools. -
July 2018
Language against sex discrimination removed: HHS removed language prohibiting sex discrimination — including that against transgender patients and people who obtain abortions — in health care settings from the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) website. In Section 1557, which detailed the types of discrimination the OCR enforced, references to “sex stereotyping” and “gender identity” — as well as information about discrimination on the basis of “termination of pregnancy” — were removed. -
September 2018
Options for transgender and nonbinary people removed: The State Department deleted a resource on “Gender Designation Change” from its passport-services site — posting a “Change of Sex Marker” page in its place. An FAQ section on the new page specifically ruled out addresses identities other than “male” or “female” on U.S. passports. -
October 2018
Mentions of gender removed from global human rights documents: It was reported that the U.S. Mission to the United Nations pressed a UN committee to delete inclusive references to “gender” from human rights documents — proposing to replace the word, in most instances, with “women.” -
April 2019
Replacing civil rights with “religious freedom”: The HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) overhauled its mission and vision statements on its website, replacing language about promoting equality and protecting people from discrimination with language about promoting "religious freedom" and protecting people from "religious discrimination" — which is code for downplaying LGBTQ and reproductive rights.
Reshaping Policy to Remove Protections
LGBTQ Rights
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October 2017
Protections for trans workers temporarily reversed: In 2017, former Attorney General Jeff Sessions reversed a previous Department of Justice (DOJ) determination that the prohibition on sex discrimination in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects transgender people from employment discrimination. The Trump-Pence administration’s interpretation of the Civil Rights Act put transgender workers at risk of discrimination. On June 16, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the administration’s interpretation, so employees are now protected from being fired for their gender identity and for their sexual orientation. -
October 2018
Visas withdrawn: The State Department withdrew visa eligibility from same-sex domestic partners of foreign diplomats and United Nations employees in the United States — imposing hardship on couples from countries with no legal recognition of same-sex marriage. The State Department minimized the impact of the change by offering the spin that “same-sex spouses of U.S. diplomats now enjoy the same rights and benefits as opposite-sex spouses.” - April 2019
Trans soldiers banned: Trump blocked transgender people from serving openly in the military. The military now requires service members to work in the gender assigned to them at birth and bars them from seeking transition-related care. In addition, people are no longer allowed to enlist if they have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria.
Health Care Access
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January 2018
LGBTQ patients put at risk: HHS issued a rule that would expand health care workers’ ability to deny health services to patients — which would disproportionately affect LGBQ patients, transgender people, and women. The final rule is currently blocked by the courts, but is scheduled to take effect in August 2020.
Learn more -
November 2018
Birth control coverage attacked: The administration finalized two rules that would allow employers and universities to opt out of covering birth control. Those rules are blocked, but the Supreme Court will decide on them soon. Birth control is essential care that nine out of 10 sexually active women have relied on in their lifetime, and the rules could decrease access to birth control for hundreds of thousands of women.
Learn more
Immigrants’ Rights
- February 2020
Access to public benefits blocked: A new “public charge rule” makes it more difficult for immigrants with low incomes to enter or stay in the United States. The rule is deterring immigrants, refugees, and their families from accessing health care and other important services.
Learn more
Sexual Assault Survivors’ Rights
- May 2020
Protections for survivors removed: Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos removed Obama-era Title IX protections for survivors of campus sexual assault. The final changes — which include restrictions on who can report and onerous procedural requirements — are set to make it even more difficult for survivors of sexual violence to come forward and for schools to reach fair decisions on sexual assault cases.
Learn more
Using ‘Alternative Facts’
- October 2017
HHS released a draft strategic plan that defined life as “beginning at conception.” In a departure from previous strategic plans, the draft also eliminated references to LGBTQ people and people of color.
Learn more -
January 2018
Reports emerged that the director of HHS’s Office of Refugee Resettlement, Scott Lloyd, considered pushing unproven “abortion reversal” on young undocumented immigrants in his care.
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July 2018
The Council of Economic Advisors tried to justify the administration’s plans to restrict access to programs designed for Americans with low incomes — such as Medicaid and SNAP food assistance — by falsely declaring that America’s war on poverty was “largely over and a success.” (Poverty rates for children and adults under 65 have in fact changed little since 1970.) -
September 2018
Trump rejected studies showing that nearly 3,000 Americans had died after the 2017 landfall of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. A White House spokesperson, when asked about the president’s remark, blamed “liberal media and the San Juan Mayor who sadly, have tried to exploit the devastation by pushing out a constant stream of misinformation and false accusations.” -
October 2018
Trump rejected multiple charges of sexual abuse leveled against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and others — labeling the allegations “a hoax” and purporting to apologize “on behalf of our nation” for “terrible pain and suffering” that Kavanaugh, in the president’s account, was “forced to endure.” -
October 2018
Close to a year after the worldwide #MeToo movement of survivors of sexual assault and harassment rose to prominence, President Trump described the present day as “a very scary time for young men,” while adding that “women are doing great.” -
October 2018
It was revealed that HHS was considering a new definition of gender that would exclude transgender people. Learn more.
Ignoring the Needs of Communities
- April 2017
DOJ suspended efforts to negotiate or enforce consent decrees that address systemic discrimination in local policing. In October 2018, former Attorney General Sessions took the further step of attempting to thwart a police consent agreement between Chicago and the attorney general of Illinois. -
October 2017
The White House issued a statement honoring Columbus Day that made no mention of the indigenous peoples who inhabited the Americas when European settlers arrived. Trump ignored Native Americans again in a 2018 address to graduates of the Naval Academy, telling attendees that “our ancestors … tamed a continent.” -
February 2018
The Department of Education announced that it would no longer investigate civil rights complaints from transgender students about treatment out of accordance with their gender identities. -
July 2018
HHS announced the near-elimination of funding for “navigators” who offer in-person assistance to people eligible for health coverage. The cut falls with particular impact, according to a leader at one navigator organization, on “underserved, hard-to-reach populations, people who live in rural areas or have low literacy or don’t speak English as their primary language.” -
Since Trump took office, the White House has published no statements in commemoration of Pride Month.
Supressing Communities
- January 2017
Beginning in January 2017, Trump made several attempts to impose a “Muslim ban” — arbitrarily barring entry to the country by people with passports from seven predominantly Muslim countries, even when arriving travelers had permanent resident status in the United States.
Learn More -
March 2017
The Census Bureau announced that it plans to make no attempt to identify LGBTQ Americans in the 2020 census — which would leave the country without a measure of the LGBTQ population and where it lives, and potentially lead to underfunding services of particular value to LGBTQ communities. Learn more. -
May 2017
HHS removed questions about sexual orientation and gender identity from its annual survey of older residents of the United States who use the department’s services. The deletion increases the difficulty of targeting — or winning funding for — services of particular help to older LGBTQ people. -
July 2017–July 2018
The armed forces discharged more than 500 immigrants recruited across the globe for their language or medical expertise in exchange for a path to U.S. citizenship. The abrupt discharges deprived military personnel of access to the recruits’ medical services — and denied the recruits’ access to health coverage and other benefits of enlistment. -
September 2017
President Trump tried to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program — which allowed hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought to the United States as children to legally get jobs, go to school, and support their families.
Learn more -
March 2018
The Census Bureau announced it would add a question about U.S. citizenship status to the 2020 census — a move that would reduce participation by documented and undocumented residents. Among the consequences of any resulting undercounts: reduced services and congressional representation in areas with large immigrant populations.
Learn More -
April 2018
HHS turned down requests by Native American tribal leaders to exempt members of tribes from proposed Medicaid work requirements — arguing that respect for tribal sovereignty would amount to preferential treatment. -
September 2018
It came to light that the State Department had rejected passport applications and renewal requests for numerous Hispanic residents of the U.S.-Mexico border region — stranding some holders of U.S. birth certificates outside of the United States, and resulting in the jailing of others in detention centers for deportation proceedings. -
2017–2018
The Trump administration tried to rescind Temporary Protected Status from over 300,000 immigrants in the United States — attempting to force them to return to countries wracked by violence or reeling from catastrophic natural disasters.
Photographic Erasure
The administration isn’t just erasing inclusive references to gender, sexuality, and ethnicity from its documents and statements. It’s also reshaping who has a seat at the table. Photographs show a group of decision makers that’s overwhelmingly white and male.
This is more evidence of the administration’s deliberate decision to sideline people of color and women from government of, by, and for the people.