HHS Rolling Back LGBTQ Protections in Grants and Programs

ElaineA

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In all the impeachment hullaballoo there is a lot of news flying under the radar. This one is significant, in line with "the cruelty is the point," and would strike another hateful blow at both LGBTQ folk and non-Christians. It's not only gross discrimination, it dangerously undercuts opportunities for care for vulnerable communities.

Copying and pasting the National Center for Transgender Equality's press release here:

The Trump administration announced today that it would abandon civil rights rules for organizations receiving billions in taxpayer dollars.

Announced by HHS this morning, the rule immediately removes any requirement that recipients of grants from HHS enforce nondiscrimination rules that prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. Impacting all discretionary and non-discretionary grants across the Department, the rule will allow anti-transgender discrimination in HIV and STI prevention programs, opioid programs, youth homelessness services, health professional training, substance use recovery programs, and many other life-saving services addressing crises with a disparate impact on transgender people in the US.

HHS has already separately moved to allow discrimination in Medicare and Medicaid programs through the elimination of an Obama-era rule protecting transgender people from discrimination in health care. The rule announced today will also remove rules prohibiting discrimination on the basis of religion.

The president of Human Rights Campaign says,

“The Trump-Pence White House has proposed a horrific federal regulation that would permit discrimination across the entire spectrum of HHS programs receiving federal funding,” said HRC President Alphonso David. “This would permit discrimination against LGBTQ people, religious minorities, and women in programs related to foster care, adoption, HIV and STI prevention, youth homelessness, refugee resettlement, elder care programs and more. It is unconscionable that the Trump-Pence administration would prioritize advancing discrimination over the wellbeing of vulnerable people and expect taxpayers to foot the bill for their discriminatory policies. The Trump-Pence White House is relying on the same flawed legal reasoning they’ve used in the past to justify discrimination against LGBTQ people and other communities.”

Here is The Hill's take

Here is a Politico article

In searching for the comment page, HHS is showing no rules open for comment as of today, so if anyone hears of the comment period opening, please add a link to this thread.
 
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regdog

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Falls right in line with every other antiLGBTQ agenda of this administration
 

lizmonster

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I’d say they’re destroying our country, but I’m beginning to believe we’ve already hit that iceberg.

My only hope is that there are still more of us than there are of them, and that we’ll eventually fix all this. I’m feeling, though, like the available avenues are diminishing.