Nine LGBTQ, health and HIV organizations sued the Trump administration on Thursday with three executive orders targeting transgender people and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. Personal identity.
The group, based in six different states, challenged President Trump's order to end the DEI program, subsidizing grants “in relation to equity” and the government recognizes only two genders: male and female I declare that I am. Each order places an organization that serves historically marginalized groups at risk of losing federal funds.
“The executive order targets the plaintiffs and those they serve in the conflict and excludes them from services that have received federal financial support for who they are.”They say in the lawsuitfiled Thursday in US District Court for the Northern District of California.
A group represented by LGBTQ civil rights group Lambda Legal is asking the court to temporarily block the enforcement of the order while the lawsuit continues. They argue that executive orders violate constitutional rights and punish organizations that recognize the existence of transgender people.
Tyler Turmoore, CEO of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, is the main plaintiff in the case — said the government has frozen the group's federal funds as an “attempt to threaten us to silence.”
The order could make it more difficult for health agencies to coordinate services to the community, according to Jose Abrigo, director of the HIV project at Lambda Legal.
“Many of the services they provide are required by the government to target services to ethnic minorities, especially black indigenous people, Asian communities and transgender communities. Abrigo said in an interview. The inability to address a systematic history of discrimination in the form of species or transgender discrimination poses an existential threat to them.”
“How can LGBTQ centers exist without recognizing the existence of trans people?” he said. “How can HIV organizations exist if they can't recognize the fact that HIV mainly affects black communities?”
Carla Smith, CEO of New York's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community center, was often shortened to the center — her organization, plaintiff in Thursday's lawsuit, has a direct impact on the population. Because Trump said he felt responsible for challenging the orders, it was created to serve.
Founded in 1983 during the AIDS epidemic in New York, the center has been trying to provide safe and positive spaces for LGBTQ activities and community buildings for decades. Today, the services range from mental health and addiction services to family counseling and vocational training. According to the group's website.
Like other organizations named in the lawsuit, the center focuses on systemic inequality in LGBTQ people and communities of color, which became a major target for Trump's orders, diversity and equity. Sexual programs correspond to “illegal and immoral discrimination.”
“We use federal funds at risk by these executive orders to provide a variety of services to our community, which is a lot of the types of services categorized into the DEI framework. ” Smith said in an interview.
“The impact on our community is substantial,” she said. “We have made a lot of progress over the years, but now we fear that our community members will be dehumanized, pushed into our closets and not have access to the support that is life-saving support for them. ”
Since taking office on January 20th, Trump has signed several executive orders aimed at LGBTQ Americans and told administrative staff to remove references to transgender and non-binary people from government websites. I've given you instructions. Protests exploded outside the Stonewall Memorial in New York this weekend after “LGBTQ” was shorted to “LGB” on the National Park Service website.
The president and his allies have opposed what they call “radical gender ideology,” ending federal support for gender transition treatments like adolescent blockers, hormone therapy and surgery for transgender youth. I was about to do it. Social transition without medical intervention.
“I think one thing that needs to be perceived is when you talk about gender-affirming care, you meet where they are and provide care to the whole person,” Phoenix said. He is also the plaintiff in Thursday's case. “If we can't recognize individuals who are expanding their gender as to who they are, we can't provide health care. It's not possible.”
Previously the southwest center of HIV/AIDS, Prisma provides primary care, mental health services, substance abuse treatment and reproductive health care to thousands of people in Maricopa County, Arizona. It belongs to the county and is also the most populous county in Arizona. A facility that offers free HIV and sexually transmitted disease testing.
In late January, the health center lost its ability to withdraw grants awarded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Department of Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services, Leach said in an interview. The CDC then informed her that the funds had ended in accordance with Trump's executive order.
Leach considered temporarily closing before funds recovered. This had a move that would have had a major impact not only on the local LGBTQ community, but also on the entire local community.
“The downstream is devastating,” Leach said. “It's devastating now, but when an organization like me starts tracking how far it reaches, I don't even know how to quantify it. With these executive orders, an organization like me can make it By trying to defeat you, you are not only defeating us, but also defeating a large strip of population.”
Lenny Lau, senior project coordinator for Baltimore Safe Haven, a transgender-led nonprofit in Maryland, said the group was “devastated” by the Trump administration's steps to roll back transgender rights. It has been impacted by trans people who said that his organization's targeting is not just about.
“We are a full-service organization that serves not only the LGBT community, but the entire community,” Lau said Thursday. “Outreach programs, our special outreach program, reach everyone. And if you come to our drop-in center, it's who you are and who you are? , whether you are marginalized, if you need a home, or if you need services, you will get by the time you leave our building.”
