Tag: Trump discrimination

Trump’s ban on transgender troops hurt the military, former service surgeons general say

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President Trump’s order banning many transgender people from serving has eroded the military’s ability to fight and win wars by narrowing its recruiting pool and lowering morale among transgender troops exempt from the policy, former top military physicians said in a study.

Defense Department regulations implemented April 12, 2019, prohibit anyone with gender dysphoria from enlisting but allow transgender service members who were serving before then to remain in uniform.

Trump and military officials have argued that barring transgender people from serving would improve readiness and strengthen unit cohesion. But a study published by the Palm Center, a research institute that studies LGBTQ personnel issues in the military, said the opposite has occurred. Continue reading.

Judge Blocks Trump Officials’ Attempt to End Transgender Health Protections

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The decision arrived a day before a Trump administration rule narrowing the legal definition of sex discrimination was set to take effect.

WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Monday blocked an effort by the Trump administration to erase protections for transgender patients against discrimination by doctors, hospitals and health insurance companies, dealing a blow to the broader legal reasoning it has used to try to roll back transgender rights across the government.

Judge Frederic Block of the United States District Court in Brooklyn found that the administration’s new rule, which was finalized in mid-June by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights, appeared to be incompatible with a Supreme Court case, decided days later, establishing that employers cannot discriminate against transgender people in the workplace.

His ruling temporarily blocks enforcement of the new rule, which was due to take effect Tuesday, while a lawsuit moved forward. Continue reading.

McEnany claims Trump has ‘great record’ on LGBTQ issues

AlterNet logoTrump has made 153 attacks against the LGBTQ community so far during his presidency.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said on Monday that Donald Trump has a “great record when it comes to the LGBTQ community.”

Chris Johnson, chief political and White House reporter for the Washington Blade, asked McEnany if Trump would reconsider the ban on transgender people in the military after 116 Democratic House lawmakers sent a letter last week to Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Attorney General William Barr calling for the Pentagon to end the policy.

McEnany responded, “I haven’t talked to him about that specific policy, but this president is proud that, in 2019, we launched a global initiative to end the criminalization of homosexuality throughout the world. He has a great record when it comes to the LGBT community. The Trump administration eased a ban on blood donations from gay and bisexual men and he launched a plan to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030. So we’re very proud of our achievements.” Continue reading.

Trump’s Rollback of Transgender Rights Extends Through Entire Government

Whether it means serving in the military, working for a federal contractor or seeking medical help, regulations that once protected transgender people are under attack.

WASHINGTON — Nicolas Talbott, a graduate student at Kent State University in Ohio who is transgender, was told in May that because of President Trump’s transgender ban in the military, he would no longer be eligible for placement as an Army officer. He could continue participating in the Reserve Officers Training Corps program, but the benefits that he joined for — health insurance and student loan forgiveness — were no longer available to him.

“Everyone else would walk away with a job in the United States Army, and I would walk away with just more student loan debt,” Mr. Talbott said.

Mr. Talbott’s experience is just one version of a broader story unfolding across vast portions of the federal government as the Trump administration has rolled back a wide array of protections for transgender people, many of them put in place during the Obama administration. The Obama White House used its powers to declare that legal and legislative efforts to defend against sex discrimination should apply to gender identity. The Trump White House called that executive overreach — and reversed course wherever it could.

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Proposed HHS rule would roll back LGBTQ protections in adoption, foster care

The Department of Health and Human Services proposed a new rule Friday that would allow recipients of federal grants from the health agency, including faith-based adoption agencies and foster care providers, to turn away same-sex couples.

The rule would roll back an Obama-era regulation that went into effect days before he left office in 2017 that inserted nondiscrimination language on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity when determining the recipients of grants from the agency.

The Trump administration’s move was cheered by religious groups who argued the Obama rule violated those groups’ religious liberties.

View the complete November 1 article by Caitlin Oprysko on the Policy website here.

Water experts tell Trump no, the homeless aren’t hurting California water quality

The Hill logoThe Trump administration tried to pin California’s water woes on the homeless, but water quality experts say there is little connection between homeless camps and water pollution.

In the latest move in the political battle between President Trump and the nation’s largest blue state, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sent a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) criticizing California for “failing to meet its obligations” on sewage and water pollution, blaming homelessness for the contamination.

But experts say the EPA was short on scientific backing for its claims.

View the complete September 28 article by Rebecca Beitsch on The Hill website here.

HUD Secretary Ben Carson makes dismissive comments about transgender people, angering agency staff

Washington Post logoHousing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson expressed concern about “big, hairy men” trying to infiltrate women’s homeless shelters during an internal meeting, according to three people present who interpreted the remarks as an attack on transgender women.

While visiting HUD’s San Francisco office this week, Carson also lamented that society no longer seemed to know the difference between men and women, two of the agency staffers said.

Carson’s remarks visibly shocked and upset many of the roughly 50 HUD staffers who attended Tuesday’s meeting, and prompted at least one woman to walk out in protest, the staffers said.

View the complete September 19 article by Tracy Jan and Jeff Stein on The Washington Post website here.

Trump says EPA will cite San Francisco for pollution stemming from homelessness issues

The Hill logoABOARD AIR FORCE ONE — President Trump on Wednesday said he expects the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to slap San Francisco with a violation notice in the coming days related to pollution associated with the city’s homeless population.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump again took aim at Los Angeles and San Francisco over the volume of homeless people in each city. But he escalated his rhetoric, saying an announcement citing San Francisco for environmental violations would come in the next week.

“There’s tremendous pollution being put into the ocean because they’re going through what’s called the storm sewer that’s for rainwater,” Trump said. “And we have tremendous things that we don’t have to discuss pouring into the ocean. You know there are needles, there are other things.”

View the complete September 19 article by Brett Samuels on The Hill website here.

Trump: Homeless people hurt the ‘prestige’ of Los Angeles, San Francisco

Washington Post logoMOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — President Trump maligned the problem of homelessness in California as he arrived in the nation’s most populous state Tuesday, arguing that people living on the streets here have ruined the “prestige” of two of the state’s most populous cities and suggesting the possibility of federal action.

“We can’t let Los Angeles, San Francisco and numerous other cities destroy themselves by allowing what’s happening,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Silicon Valley, where he hosted a campaign fundraiser to kick off a two-day visit to California.

Under Trump’s direction, the administration has been eyeing sweeping unilateral action on homelessness, with top government officials from multiple agencies touring California this month to formulate a strategy. Housing Secretary Ben Carson was also visiting San Francisco on Tuesday, and had plans to discuss the issue.

View the complete September 17 article by Philip Rucker and Jeff Stein on The Washington Post website here.

White House Budget Office Hires Anti-Gay Zealot

Breitbart.com writer Ken Klukowski has joined the White House’s Office of Management and Budget. The right-wing pundit and lawyer has a history of pushing anti-LGBTQ commentary, including telling readers there’s a “homosexual agenda” moving forward in the courts and falsely claiming that research proves that same-sex parents are bad for children.

Klukowski has worked for a variety of right-wing organizations, including Breitbart.com, the American Civil Rights Union, First Liberty Institute, Liberty University School of Law, and Family Research Council. As a lawyer, Klukowski has filed numerous briefs supporting right-wing causes. He joined the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) as a special counsel in late August. OMB, which is under the direction of Mick Mulvaney, “oversees the performance of federal agencies, and administers the federal budget.”

Klukowksi was previously the director of the Center for Religious Liberty at the Family Research Council. Family Research Council is an influential and extreme anti-LGBTQ group with high levels of access to the Trump-Pence administration. The organization has compared LGBTQ people to pedophiles and advocated for the discredited and harmful practice of conversion therapy. It also  states on its website: “Family Research Council believes that homosexual conduct is harmful to the persons who engage in it and to society at large, and can never be affirmed.”

View the complete September 4 article by Eric Hananoki from Media Matters on the National Memo website here.