Gay congressman presses HUD Secretary Scott Turner over agency’s retreat from LGBTQ+ housing protections

The Trump administration says it is making progress on housing discrimination by shrinking its backlog of complaints. U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres wants to know what that progress means for LGBTQ+ people whose cases the government has stopped investigating.In a letter to Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner obtained exclusively by The Advocate, the New York Democrat demands records on complaints involving sexual orientation and gender identity, political oversight of investigators, and staffing losses.“The Department’s obligation is to enforce the law, not to redefine discrimination out of existence,” Torres writes.The letter demands answers and supporting data by November 1.Torres, an out gay Afro-Latino Democrat representing New York’s 15th Congressional District in the Bronx, grew up in public housing. Before he was elected to Congress in 2020, he chaired the New York City Council’s public housing committee.Related: Democrats commemorate LGBTQ+ rights movement with Stonewall Day resolutions (exclusive)What a smaller backlog leaves unansweredHUD announced in June that it had reduced its overall fair housing case backlog by 27 percent. It highlighted 15 recent enforcement actions involving allegations including sexual harassment, disability discrimination, and discrimination against families with children.“Every one of these actions represents an American whose rights deserved protection,” Turner said in the announcement.But the Government Accountability Office said in a September report released publicly on October 14 that it could not independently verify the reduction because HUD did not provide requested information about changes to its processes.Torres wants HUD to distinguish completed investigations and settlements from administrative closures, dismissals without full investigations, and halted cases. Separately, he requests monthly, regional data showing what happened to sexual orientation and gender identity complaints since Janua