How Donald Trump transformed the federal government’s treatment of LGBTQ+ Americans

This story was originally published by Uncloseted Media, an LGBTQ focused investigative news outlet.Since President Donald Trump’s reelection, the full force of the federal government has been working to dismantle anything and everything it calls “gender ideology.” The past four and a half months have seen the Trump administration’s key agencies using executive orders from the president’s first days in office to further upend queer and trans rights. While federal judges continue to block some of his agencies’ anti-LGBTQ policies, his administration has ignored court orders at least 31 times. Here is every move Trump and his administration have made on LGBTQ issues since Jan. 21 of this year.Jan. 27, 2026Building on a 2025 presidential memorandum, the Department of State implements a new policy called Promoting Human Flourishing in Foreign Assistance (PHFFA). The policy threatens up to $39.8 billion in foreign aid by prohibiting recipients from funding gender-affirming care and anything that promotes so-called gender ideology, abortion as a method of family planning, and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. Critics have called the policy a “global gag rule.”PHFFA is paired with two additional State Department rules: Combating Gender Ideology in Foreign Assistance and Combating Discriminatory Equity Ideology in Foreign Assistance. The first bars any nongovernmental organization that “promotes transgenderism” from receiving federal funding. The second directs the Secretary of State to remove “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility” as a factor for who it considers for promotions and tenure with the Foreign Service.Jan. 29, 2026Attorneys tell The Advocate that the Trump administration has been quietly advancing immigration policies that could endanger LGBTQ asylum seekers, including by putting them at risk of being transferred or deported to countries where LGBTQ people are criminalized. One agreement allows for U.S. immigration