President Donald Trump signed an executive order declaring that the federal government would no longer recognize transgender, nonbinary, and intersex people. According to new research from the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law, approximately 360 federal data collections have since removed at least one sexual orientation or gender identity (SOGI) measure. Of those, 338 removed gender identity options entirely, and 60 removed sexual orientation data as well, which were not explicitly required by the executive order on Jan. 20.
Cathy Renna of the National LGBTQ Task Force and a Montclair resident says the stakes could not be higher. “If you don’t count us, we don’t count,” she says. She draws a direct line between data erasure and real-world harm, particularly around tracking bias-motivated crimes.
“People need to understand that our community is targeted because of our sexual orientation and gender identities,” she says. “It makes that issue less abstract. It makes it real.”
Renna also notes that most of the removals bypassed the formal notice-and-comment process that federal policy changes typically require, calling it consistent with a broader pattern of the administration ignoring established procedures.
New Jersey advocates are already working on a response. Lauren Albrecht, Senior Director of Advocacy and Organizing at Garden State Equality, says the organization has been developing state-level legislation to fill the gap. “We’ve been working on a bill draft that will help close this gap in New Jersey in a safe and responsive way,” Albrecht says, describing a plan to collect SOGI data securely at the state level without making it accessible to federal agencies.
