A New Trump Administration Rule Could Put Thousands More Trans People In Danger

By Lauren Rearick


President Donald Trump’s proposed change in homeless shelter admittance policies could affect the one in five transgender people who have experienced homelessness in their lifetimes, and cause them to potentially lose access to shelters or risk violence indoor one.


On Wednesday, May 22, The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) unveiled a proposal that would let government-funded homeless shelters with gender-specific buildings, including restrooms and sleeping quarters, to imagine gender once deciding whether to admit someone to a shelter. If such a policy was passed, shelters could potentially turn away transgender and nonbinary individuals or force individuals to use facilities that don’t align with their gender identity, Buzzfeed notes. Shelters could be permitted to create admittance decisions based on so-called “privacy, safety, practical concerns, and religious beliefs,” CNN reports.


However HUD’s policy as a note that shelter programs would still be “open to all eligible individuals and families without consideration of sexual orientation or gender identity,” the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) told MTV News the proposal is “a truthful threat to some of the most weak people in our society.”


Gillian Branstetter, media relations manager for NCTE, explained that intelligence involving homeless LGBTQ+ youth don’t account for all versions of unstable housing. In 2016, The National Runaway Switchboard reported that 1.3 million homeless youth were currently living In the United States. And of that 1.3 million, nearly 40 percent are LGBTQ+.


“This rule, if it’s implemented, will make it significantly harder for homeless transgender youth to find safe places to stay, and to really achieve that level of independent safety that we know they need,” Branstetter mentioned. As LGBTQ+ folks are more likely to experience violence both in and outdoor of their homes, shelters can supply a “life-saving” measure of safety, Branstetter said.


American Civil Liberties Union senior legislative representative Ian Thompson called the move a “dangerous and disgraceful attack on transgender people,” The Hill reports. “When shelters are allowed to turn transgender people away — a policy that is sanctioned by a government that keeps it up and continues to push the lie that the mere existence of trans people threatens the privacy and safety of others — deadly violence against the trans community on the streets will rise,” he said.


A completed proposal on shelter access would need to be published and face public comments before passage, Buzzfeed notes. In the meantime, the NCTE is encouraging the public to get involved. Additionally to contacting local homeless shelters that support LGBTQ+ youth and seeing how you could will support, Branstetter planned reaching out to your senators, and asking them to support the Equality Act. The offered measure could make discrimination on the basis of sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity unlawful, particularly as they pertain to education, employment, housing, credit, and federally-funded programs.


“Call your senators and tell them to pass the Equality Act, because that can really help send a nationwide message about what sort of nation we desire to live,” Branstetter mentioned. “Do we aspire to stay in a nation where people have to fear losing the roof over their head because of who they are?”


Throughout his time in office, President Trump has continued to enact legislation that specifically targets the rights of transgender people. In the last year, he’s passed a military ban on transgender enlistment, permitted South Carolina adoption businesses the correct to decline adoption by LGBTQ+ parents, and proposed a rule that would permit healthcare providers the correct to reject performing hormone therapy, hysterectomies, orchiectomies, or other transition-related services, if they claimed religious objections.