HUD Moves to Allow Anti-Trans Discrimination in Federally Funded Homeless Shelters

WASHINGTON — The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced a proposal today to roll back protections for transgender people experiencing homelessness, allowing taxpayer-funded shelters to turn away transgender people experiencing homelessness based on a number of factors, including the shelter provider’s religious views.

Ian Thompson, senior legislative representative for the American Civil Liberties Union, had the following response:

“This is yet another dangerous and disgraceful attack on transgender people from the Trump administration, as well as another attempt to license taxpayer-funded discrimination in the name of religion. Many transgender and non-binary people experience pervasive discrimination in the workplace and in housing, made even more heartbreaking by violence and rejection at home. For transgender people, particularly trans youth of color and Black trans women who experience homelessness at appallingly high rates, the crisis is especially dire, and has led to a devastating and largely unaddressed epidemic of violence and death.

“When shelters are allowed to turn transgender people away — a policy that is sanctioned by a government that continues to push the lie that the mere existence of trans people threatens the privacy and safety of others — deadly violence against the trans community on the streets will rise.

“The ACLU will fight back against this attempt to write discrimination into the law. Shelters funded by taxpayers should be open to all — period.”

This statement is online here: https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/hud-moves-allow-anti-trans-discrimination-federally-funded-homeless-shelters