If a teacher wanted to find guidance in early January on how to support LGBTQ students, they could have accessed a government website for resources. That web page no longer exists.
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It’s one of more than 350 government web pages related to the LGBTQ community that have been deleted from federal government websites, according to a report published Thursday by the Center for American Progress, a liberal research and advocacy group.
Examples of such resources include guides for schools implementing inclusive anti-harassment policies and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s LGBTQ resource web page, the report said.
“These pages contain key information for LGBTQI+ communities and those who work with them, and their removal marks a gravely concerning restriction of vital information,” CAP said in its report.
In an emailed response to a request for comment on the report, White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly said American voters “gave President Trump a mandate to implement his common sense, America First agenda.”
“President Trump is using his executive authority to quickly restore common sense to the federal government, and federal agencies are expected to align with the President’s guidance on unfair and unpopular DEI policies,” Kelly said.
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The removal of the government web pages comes after President Donald Trump signed a series of executive orders that impact the LGBTQ community. These include banning diversity, equity and inclusion practices from the federal government, declaring that the federal government will only recognize two sexes — male and female — and banning transgender women from participating in female sports.
It isn’t the first time web pages have been taken down. Earlier this week, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to immediately restore certain public health information removed from websites in recent days that doctors and researchers said they needed to treat patients and track disease outbreaks in real time.