hundreds of federal surveys have had questions related to sexual orientation and gender identity removed. New report from the Williams InstituteHe cited President Trump’s executive order as the reason.
The report mentions the deletion of questions due to “non-substantive change requests.” This means that there was no evidence to support a legitimate reason or rationale for the removal request. Only a small portion of request changes were made through formal procedures Notice and comment process.
The study found that the majority of removal requests were made in response to questions about gender identity. Trump Executive Order 14,168. The executive order, signed on January 20, 2025, claims to protect women from gender ideology and extremism and promises to restore “biological truth” to the federal government.
The effects of this scrub are significant. According to the Williams Institute, a prominent think tank at UCLA School of Law, these questions are essential in research settings to better understand the needs and vulnerabilities of LGBTQ+ people and how to address them.
“Federal data on sexual orientation and gender identity are essential to understanding the LGBTQ population in the United States,” lead author Lauren Bouton, a policy fellow and research analyst at the Williams Institute, said in a statement. “These data allow us to identify disparities in health, economics, and exposure to violence – groups that have been shown to be at disproportionately high risk for these outcomes. Only then can we begin to address these realities with solutions, such as more effective programs and resource allocation.”
The existence of these questions also makes the number of LGBTQ+ people more visible to the federal government, allowing them to allocate more funding to communities on a larger scale to address their specific needs.
“Reliable data collection is fundamental to how the federal government identifies and responds to community needs,” said co-author Elana Redfield, director of federal policy at the Williams Institute. “Eliminate SOGI” [sexual orientation and gender identity] The measure would weaken the government’s ability to track disparities and document and prevent discrimination. The full extent of the impact will become clearer over time as existing data ages and new data is no longer collected. ”
Since entering his second term last year, the Trump administration has eliminated references to LGBTQ+ people and issues across federal websites and reports. of Pride flag removed from Stonewall Inn National Monument It sparked protests, lawsuits and the re-raising of banners in New York earlier this month.
This article was written as part of The Advocate’s “Future of Queer Media” fellowship program. This program is morrison media group. This program helps support the next generation of LGBTQ+ journalists.
Source: Advocate.com – www.advocate.com
