Shocking New Moves By Trump Invites Discrimination Against + ERASES LGBTQ Americans

New actions by the Trump administration will directly impact the lives of LGBTQ people…

1.) A new executive order by Trump that rescinded President Obama’s Executive, known as Fair Pay & Safe Workplaces order. Obama’s order said that companies that want to do business with the federal government need to disclose their records on job discrimination.

Since 2014, companies receiving large federal contracts have been required to show they have complied for at least three years with federal laws prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity and gender stereotyping.

Lambda Legal CEO Rachel B. Tiven in a statement,

“This sends a message that the government condones discrimination.“

This administration is not only NOT discouraging discrimination of LGBTQ people, it is INVITING businesses that violate equal pay and fair wage laws.Those that ignore laws requiring family medical leave, or target employees for discrimination based on race, sex, gender identity, gender non-conformity (including being gay or lesbian), disability (including HIV), and numerous other grounds will have no consequences for their actions.

2.) A report listing the categories of citizens that officials want collected for the 2020 Census and the American Community Survey was sent to Congress yesterday. The National LGBTQ Task Force revealed how the report,

“conspicuously excluded lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBTQ) people on the list of ‘planned subjects’ for the nation’s decennial census and longer form survey.”

Census takers will still collect basic information about same-sex couples but the categories and more in-depth questions to provide a wider, more complete survey of LGBTQ Americans are gone. Meghan Maury, Criminal and Economic Justice Project Director, National LGBTQ Task Force says

“Today, the Trump Administration has taken yet another step to deny LGBTQ people freedom, justice, and equity, by choosing to exclude us from the 2020 Census and American Community Survey.”

LGBTQ people are not counted on the Census —no data is collected on sexual orientation or gender identity. Information from these surveys helps the government to enforce federal laws like the Violence Against Women Act and the Fair Housing Act and to determine how to allocate resources like housing supports and food stamps. If the government doesn’t know how many LGBTQ people live in a community, how can it do its job to ensure we’re getting fair and adequate access to the rights, protections and services we need?

We call on President Trump and his Administration to begin collecting sexual orientation and gender identity data on the American Community Survey as soon as possible and urge Congress to conduct oversight hearings to reveal why the Administration made the last-minute decision not to collect data on LGBTQ people.

All of these things violate the law. Companies that break the law should be sued – not invited to win our tax dollars. Lambda Legal announced plans to sue for the enforcement of laws aimed at protecting LGBTQ employees as well as employees living with HIV.

The fight continues. #Resist