The Trump administration withheld $1.25 million in Congress-allocated funds from 20 organizations focusing on projects related to LGBTQ and other underrepresented groups in moves that could violate federal law, according to multiple sources.
In January, the National Park Service publicly announced the grant in 2014, stating that the legislature created an underrated community grant program, providing $8.25 million to expand historic registration through historic research and appointments to state and tribal offices of historic preservation, accredited local governments and nonprofits.
The 2025 grant included three LGBTQ-related projects.
However, within days of the NPS announcement, President Trump took office and signed an executive order by the newly created agency, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to suspend all federal grants for review. Its mission: to eradicate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and purge what Trump calls the “wake” program from the federal government.
Among the funds that have now been frozen are National Park Service money. Founded more than a century ago by President Woodrow Wilson, NPS was tasked with maintaining the country’s natural and cultural resources “for the enjoyment, education and inspiration of this and future generations.”
Awareness of historically underrated community initiatives was aimed at providing long-term support for projects that highlighted marginalized communities where history was often ignored. Funding for 20 projects in 17 states and DC has been approved
Officials from three organizations focusing on LGBTQ-related work confirmed that they had not received a grant penny for the blade. In Washington, DC, the Conservation League was awarded $75,000 to document the city’s LGBTQ+ historic resources. In RI’s Providence, the Conservation Society was scheduled for $74,692 to conduct an LGBTQ+ survey and prepare a national nomination. In New York City, New York City’s fund, was awarded $32,000 to nominate the home of iconic civil rights and LGBTQ activist Bayard Rustin as a national historic landmark.
If funds allocated to these Congresses are not diversified by September 30th (end of the fiscal year), the move would appear to violate the Water Storage Management Act of 1974. One expert on the issue informed Blade that the deadline has already passed as it takes time for the government to distribute the funds.
Rebecca Miller, executive director of the DC Preservation League, saw funds withheld for historic LGBTQ-related awareness.
“Several years ago, around 2017, the DC Historical Preservation Office received a grant to conduct historical contextual studies that essentially documented the history of the DC gay movement,” Miller told Blade. “[The historic context study] It lays the foundation for further identification of important spaces under that particular historical context. ”
Some of the landmarks mentioned in the $1.25 million grant included well-known institutions that have supported the DC LGBTQ community for decades.
“Specific designated landmarks of DC that emerge from the context study [include] The Furies Collective, The Kameny House, Slowe-Burrill House and Annie steak house have also been designated,” she added.
These important locations are essential to understanding LGBTQ history not just cities but nations, Miller said.
“We can’t convey the history of the country without telling everyone’s history. In Washington, especially, I think our grants were supported by Capital Pride and Smyal, two of the city’s leading LGBTQ organizations.
“I think DC is an inclusive environment. Our goal is to tell the complete story of Washington’s history, and we cannot do that without this particular group, which is very important to that history,” added Miller.
Dr. Marisa Angel Brown, executive director of the Providence Preservation Society, told Blade that the organization has been notified that it has been selected for the grant.
“We received a notice of the award, but there were no transfers of funds,” Brown said. “When I used NPS, that email never came. And we were sending emails to contacts and asking for more information…it was just silence.”
Brown explained that the funds will be used to better understand Providence’s robust, strange history.
“Essentially, all we could do was hire a consulting historian to create the first time a site related to LGBTQ+ history in the broadest sense of the city of Providence.”
She added that by withholding funds specifically for LGBTQ-related projects, the Trump administration is attempting to selectively select history that they want to be remembered and preserved.
“Many of the history of preservation preserves sites that are primarily related to white people, as in fact, are a kind of decision-making about what history deserves space and resources,” Brown said. “I absolutely believe these kinds of moves are direct attempts to reduce civil rights. … A good history has contributed to expanding civil rights, and that’s what we wanted to do with this project.”
Other groups also confirmed that they had not received funding, such as in the Parish of Georgia or the City of Denton, Texas.
Ken Lustbader, co-founder of the NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project, said he hadn’t heard anything from the National Park Service either.
“We know that it was awarded to the paper, but there is no contract,” Lustbader told The Blade. “The fund has not signed a contract at this point.”
Walter Naegle, a longtime partner at Bayard Rustin, told Blade that he was unaware of the grant application and that his email about the grant status had not been returned to the organization.
Robert L. Glicksman, a law professor at George Washington University, said this could constitute a violation of the Constitution without notifying Congress of recommendations to change grants and without notifying the subsequent passage of the law to reapply funding.
“The president has no inherent authority to refuse to use funds allocated by Congress,” Glickman said. “Congress has control over the wallet under Article 1 of the Constitution. Any attempt by the President to ignore Congress’s instructions to use funds presents the issue of separation of power.”
He added that the meaning is serious if the Trump administration is doing this without complying with the law.
“If he is just doing this without adhering to the Water Storage Control Act procedures, it seems to be an exercise of authority outside his authority under Article 2 of the Constitution, and is violated by the power of the Wallet under Article 1 of Congress.”
“If the president refuses to unilaterally spend money, and if the law refuses to require the administrative department to use it, it’s a separation of the issues of power,” Glickman said. “It is the power of the president that the Constitution delegates to the legislative department rather than the administrative body.”
He also pointed to broader interests in Trump’s move.
“What appears to be happening here is the president’s determination that he knows better what federal money should be spent on than Congress. He has no privilege to make that decision.”
And on why these specific grants are important: “The fact that all these assets are to be dedicated to historical recognition of the past inappropriate treatment of minorities and underserved communities seems to at least demonstrate this ideological cast in their decision not to spend these specific funds.”
Blade reached out to the National Park Service to comment on the status of the Grant Fund. The agency responded via a short email. “The pending financial support obligation is under review for compliance with the recent enforcement order and memorandum.”
Is Trump’s second violation of water storage law?
The concept of check and balance came from the resolve of the founder who has been the center of the US federal government since the creation of the constitution, holding the king or Olihead. But the Trump administration is cutting off institutions designed to support those checks, as Blade revealed, by withholding payments to institutions that support ideas that it doesn’t like.
In Federalism No. 51, written by James Madison in 1788, he clearly laid out the system. The legislative department creates laws, the enforcers execute them, and the judiciary interprets them. To prevent tyranny, founders hope to layer the limits of the power of each branch, making it impossible for one leader to not check their will.
Anyone who sat through a civic class may remember one of the most important roles of the council: the power of the wallet. Funding through taxes and determining how it will be used will fall straight for lawmakers.
The idea reappeared in Federalist No. 78. There, Alexander Hamilton explained that Congress holds “will,” “force,” and “mere judgments” of the judicial. “will” meant not only was Hamilton explaining and making laws, but also funding them.
That balance was tested in the 20th century. President Richard Nixon, like Trump, began clashing or withholding funds that were explicitly allocated by Congress but clashed with his own views. In response, Congress passed the Water Storage Management Act of 1974, making it illegal for the President to block funds approved by Congress, except in very narrow circumstances.
Trump has encountered this law before. In 2019 he tried to withhold parliamentally approved military aid to Ukraine unless the government agreed to investigate his political rival, particularly Hunter Biden, the son of then-President Joe Biden. That decision sparked Trump’s first blunder each trial.
Fast forward to 2025, Trump is working on it again, targeting domestic programs this time.
Source: Washington Blade: LGBTQ News, Politics, LGBTQ Rights, Gay News – www.washingtonblade.com
