Today, after President Trump signed a barrage of executive orders targeting LGBTQ+ people and other marginalized communities that would roll back critical protections and threaten the rights and safety of millions across the country, Lambda Legal CEO Kevin Jennings released the following statement:
“Lambda Legal condemns in the strongest terms President Trump’s first actions in office targeting LGBTQ+ people, everyone living with HIV, and communities of color. We are prepared to challenge them in court.
“These executive orders include direct attacks on LGBTQ+ communities, particularly transgender people, youth, and families whose lives, dignity, and safety would be further jeopardized in this fraught moment when over two dozen states have already passed anti-LGBTQ+ laws since 2022. The Trump administration is targeting, among others: transgender and intersex people, especially youth, denying them access to essential public facilities, school programs, and the same medically recommended health care that is readily available to their cisgender peers; anti-bias programming and protections in the workplace; and transgender, intersex, and nonbinary people who only seek to have accurate identity documents. The impact of these executive actions will be devastating—stripping away health care access, weakening workplace protections from abuse, inviting exclusion and harassment of vulnerable school children, and giving a green light to discrimination throughout public life.
“The incoming administration has prioritized limiting protections against sex discrimination and abuse. Their appalling approach denies science and will make life immeasurably harder for intersex, nonbinary, and of course transgender people. Lambda Legal secured the first U.S. passport with an “X” gender marker for our brave client, Dana Zzyym, and we’ll continue to stand with Dana and all intersex, nonbinary, and transgender people to defend their right to identity documents that accurately identify who they are, and their equal protection rights against targeting and exclusion by their own government.
“The signed and still-threatened executive orders resurrect attacks from the first Trump administration – attacks we confronted and blocked:
- Trump 1.0 sought to quash workplace anti-bias programming in federally funded workplaces. We fought them and we won and stand ready to beat back renewed attacks alongside the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
- Trump 1.0 sought to give healthcare workers the right to deny care based on their religious convictions. We fought them and we won and stand ready with the American Civil Liberties Union to beat back potentially even more pernicious efforts to deny medically necessary health care.
- Trump 1.0 sought to kick transgender soldiers out of the U.S. armed forces and deny transgender people the right to enlist. We fought them and we won, and stand ready to do so again, if necessary, this time with the Human Rights Campaign as co-counsel.
“While much of what is called for by the executive orders signed today will take time to implement, we will vigilantly monitor and be ready to challenge when they take effect. Lambda Legal has been at the forefront of these and other fights for more than 50 years – and we will not back down now.
“We are exploring every legal avenue to challenge these unlawful and unconstitutional actions. This is not only about politics and ideology—but also about real people’s lives. To combat these attacks, we are launching our ‘Fearless + Fighting Back’ campaign because our community will not be erased, and Lambda Legal will never stop fighting for justice. In the next four years, we may not be able to litigate every odious anti-LGBTQ policy change, but rest assured, attacks on our communities will not go unanswered.
“We stand ready to fight alongside our colleagues who likewise are standing up for justice to ensure no one is left behind.”
Lambda Legal calls on Congress, state leaders, and all allies of equality to reject these attacks and stand in defense of the rights of LGBTQ+ people.