We don’t need to tell you that the current Administration has targeted transgender and non-binary people, rolling back federal protections and insulting us seemingly at every opportunity.
Well, they’ve found a new way to hurt us. In November 2019, the Administration announced that it would cease enforcing existing U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) regulations prohibiting discrimination based on gender identity, sexual orientation, sex and religion in HHS-funded programs. What does HHS fund? Many programs that transgender and non-binary people rely on, including:
- homeless programs
- senior services such as meals on wheels and home care
- domestic violence shelters
- substance use and treatment programs
- HIV prevention and treatment programs
- adoption and foster care programs (in which children as well as adults may be discriminated against)
- Head Start
- after school programs
- child care assistance
- protections for unaccompanied trans immigrants
- and much, much more.
HHS spends more than $500 billion in taxpayer funds every year.
Transgender and non-binary people should not be excluded from these critical federally-funded services and supports. We worked hard to gain anti-discrimination protections in many of these programs because so many transgender and non-binary people had been turned away and/or mistreated by them in the past. The Administration should not roll the clock back.
We have a brief period of time in which to object to this proposed move.
Please use go to https://lgbtactionlink.org/hhs-license-to-discriminate to submit your comments about why trans and non-binary people need protections via this secure web form.
Consider writing about your experiences of discrimination in the types of programs listed above. If you have been discriminated against on the basis of sexual orientation, sex, and/or religion, please write about those experiences, as well as about your gender identity/expression. If you would like more information, contact FORGE at https://forge-forward.org/about/contact-us/