For Immediate Release<\/p>\n\n\n\n
February 19, 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Civil and Human Rights Organizations Sue Trump Administration Over Executive Orders Banning Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Accessibility and Erasing Transgender People<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Today, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF) and Lambda Legal filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of the National Urban League, the National Fair Housing Alliance, and the AIDS Foundation of Chicago challenging three anti-equity executive orders from President Trump related to diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility and transgender people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n LDF and Lambda Legal claim these orders will severely limit the organizations\u2019 ability to provide critical social and health services such as HIV treatment, fair housing, equal employment opportunities, affordable credit, civil rights protections, and many others. This would harm countless people across the United States, including people of color, women, LGBTQ+ people, people with disabilities, and people living with HIV.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The lawsuit claims that the administration is violating the organizations\u2019 rights to free speech and due process and is engaging in intentional discrimination by issuing and enforcing the anti-equity orders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The three executive orders being challenged terminate equity-related grants and forbid federally-funded entities from engaging in diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility programs, and from recognizing the existence of transgender people. Together, these orders reverse decades of civil rights progress and pose an existential threat to the organizations that advocate for the civil rights of transgender people, and provide them shelter, services, and support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAs a Black man living with HIV who has experienced homelessness, for years, I have relied on the lifesaving services of organizations like AIDS Foundation Chicago (AFC), who understood my intersectional identities. Now, as I work in the HIV field, I am deeply concerned about the threat these orders represent to AFC\u2019s ability to serve our communities if they can\u2019t even name the issues our people are facing.\u201d said Will, an AIDS Foundation Chicago program participant and caseworker for another organization.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n “In the past decade, the National Urban League has served over 22 million Americans. In the face of economic downturns and a global pandemic, our workforce programs have placed over a quarter million people in jobs and provided job training in over 90 markets, and that number grows every year,\u201d said Marc H. Morial, President & CEO of the National Urban League<\/strong>. \u201cMany of our programs are supported by the Department of Labor. The assault on diversity, equity, and inclusion is discriminatory at best and an attempt at institutionalized economic oppression at its worst.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe cannot end the HIV epidemic without working to address health disparities for Black, Latine, LGBTQ+ people, and transgender women. We must be able to prioritize these populations in our work \u2013 whether that\u2019s through outreach, engagement initiatives, staff training, or resources \u2013 because they are disproportionately impacted by HIV These executive orders would prohibit us from doing that critical and lifesaving work, putting our clients\u2019 and the broader community\u2019s health at risk.\u201d said John Peller, President & CEO, AIDS Foundation Chicago<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFair housing is a national policy of the U.S. Our nation\u2019s fair housing principles are embedded in the Constitution and civil rights statutes secured by the blood, sweat, tears, and lives of millions of people who fought to make our Declaration of Independence and Constitution real for everyone in this country. The Constitution and our civil rights laws are centered on diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility. The President cannot undo the Constitution or take away our rights by affixing a signature to an executive order,\u201d said Lisa Rice, President and CEO of the National Fair Housing Alliance<\/strong>. \u201cThe administration\u2019s Executive Orders and OMB funding freeze memorandum have caused chaos, fear, insecurity, dysfunction, and loss of rights. The Administration\u2019s illegal actions put all people in harm’s way, driving up the cost of housing and leaving millions exposed to discrimination, harassment, and retaliation with no structure for protection. \u2018Out of Many, One\u2019 is our national motto – any effort to divide, stoke fear and treat people unfairly is not in line with our nation\u2019s founding principles. America is best when united and relentlessly pursuing a country where everyone, regardless of their background, has a fair chance at reaching the American Dream.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBeyond spreading inaccurate, dehumanizing, and divisive rhetoric, President Trump\u2019s executive orders seek to tie the hands of organizations, like our clients, providing critical services to people who need them most,\u201d said Janai Nelson, President and Director-Counsel of LDF<\/strong>. \u201cThe three orders we are challenging today perpetuate false and longstanding stereotypes that Black people and other underrepresented groups lack skills, talent, and merit\u2014willfully ignoring the discriminatory barriers that prevent a true meritocracy from flourishing. We proudly stand with our clients and Lambda Legal against these unconstitutional orders and hope the court will act quickly so the arduous work of advancing and sustaining our multiracial democracy can continue without unlawful interference from the Trump administration.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThese policies drip with contempt for transgender people, and pose a significant threat to critical health and HIV services that support marginalized communities, putting lives at risk,\u201d said Jose Abrigo, Lambda Legal\u2019s HIV Project Director.<\/strong> \u201cThese orders pose an existential threat to transgender people and the organizations that provide them with shelter and support. The orders defund organizations providing critical health and HIV services, and punish organizations for striving to improve the lives of Black people, people of color, and members of other marginalized communities. They are patently unconstitutional. Lambda Legal and LDF teamed up because the fights to end racism, the HIV epidemic, and anti-transgender bias are inseparable. For organizations like our plaintiffs providing these services, addressing these compounding barriers is essential to HIV prevention and care, and this policy would impede the work to eradicate and address the HIV epidemic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The lawsuit, National Urban League v. Trump, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, claims that the executive orders violate the plaintiffs\u2019 First Amendment right to free speech by censoring and chilling their views on diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility. The plaintiffs also claim that the executive orders are so vague that the organizations do not know what is and is not prohibited, in violation of their Fifth Amendment due process rights. Moreover, the executive orders discriminate against people of color, women, and LGBTQ+ people, with particular animus towards Black people and transgender individuals, in violation of the Fifth Amendment\u2019s guarantee of equal protection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n