On the first day and in the first week of his second term, President Donald Trump issued two executive orders taking aim specifically at LGBTQ people while rescinding seven actions by the Biden-Harris administration that expanded rights and protections for the community.

As detailed by the Human Rights Campaign, the anti-trans order, titled “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” would prohibit the federal government from recognizing people and populations whose birth sex does not match their gender identity, while facilitating discrimination against LGBTQ communities “in the workplace, education, housing, healthcare, and more.”

Additionally, the order directs the attorney general to allow “people to refuse to use a transgender or nonbinary person’s correct pronouns, and to claim a right to use single-sex bathrooms and other spaces based on sex assigned at birth at any workplace covered by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and federally funded spaces.”

The U.S. Departments of State and Homeland Security are further instructed to stop issuing documents like passports, visas, and Global Entry cards that conflict with the new, restrictive definition of sex that excludes consideration of trans and gender diverse identities.

The order also would prohibit federal funding, including through grants and contracts, for any content that is believed to promote “gender ideology,” while implementing restrictions on the use of federal resources to collect data on matters concerning gender identity.

There would also be consequences for particularly vulnerable populations, such as rules prohibiting trans women from accessing domestic violence shelters, forcing trans women to be housed with men in prisons and detention facilities, and prohibiting correctional facilities from providing gender affirming healthcare of any kind.

The second executive order targeting LGBTQ people would end diversity, equity, and inclusion programs across the federal government. HRC points out that “The preamble to the order includes a mention of the Project 2025 trope ‘gender ideology,’ while the language does not actually define DEI — meaning that “confusion and differing understandings of what DEI entails are likely to extend the regulatory process and may, in the meantime, have a chilling effect on any efforts that could potentially be considered ‘DEI.'”

Of the Biden-era executive actions that were repealed, HRC called special attention to “President Biden’s directive to agencies to implement the Supreme Court ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County, which found that Title VII’s prohibition of discrimination on the basis of sex includes prohibitions of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.”

The organization notes that the ruling, decided in 2020, remains binding precedent.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday directed State Department personnel to stop nearly all U.S. foreign aid spending for 90 days.

A copy of the directive that Politico obtained requires State Department staffers to immediately issue “stop-work orders” on nearly all “existing foreign assistance awards.”

President Donald Trump on Jan. 20 issued an executive order that paused U.S. foreign aid “for assessment of programmatic efficiencies and consistency with United States foreign policy.”  

“All department and agency heads with responsibility for United States foreign development assistance programs shall immediately pause new obligations and disbursements of development assistance funds to foreign countries and implementing non-governmental organizations, international organizations, and contractors pending reviews of such programs for programmatic efficiency and consistency with United States foreign policy, to be conducted within 90 days of this order,” it reads. “The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) shall enforce this pause through its apportionment authority.”

Politico reported Rubio’s directive is more expansive than the executive order, although it does not stop military aid to Egypt and Israel, emergency food assistance and “legitimate expenses incurred prior to the date of this.”  The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, known as PEPFAR, is among the programs impacted.

“This is a matter of life or death,” said International AIDS Society President Beatriz Grinsztejn in a press release. “PEPFAR provides lifesaving antiretrovirals for more than 20 million people — and stopping its funding essentially stops their HIV treatment. If that happens, people are going to die and HIV will resurge.

The promotion of LGBTQ and intersex rights was a cornerstone of the Biden-Harris administration’s foreign policy.

The decriminalization of consensual same-sex sexual relations was one of the previous White House’s priorities in these efforts. The U.S. Agency for International Development in 2023 released its first-ever policy for LGBTQ- and intersex-inclusive development.

Rubio this week issued a directive that bans embassies and other U.S. diplomatic institutions from flying the Pride flag. A second directive that Rubio signed directs State Department personnel to “suspend” any passport application in which an “X” gender marker is requested.

“This guidance applies to all applications currently in progress and any future applications,” reads the directive. “Guidance on existing passports containing an ‘X’ sex marker will come via other channels.”

The directive stems from a sweeping executive order — “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government” — that Trump signed on Monday after he took office. The president in his inaugural speech noted the federal government’s “official policy” is “there are only two genders, male and female.”

On his first day in office President Donald Trump on Jan. 20 named Vince Micone, who’s gay, as Acting Secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor.

Micone, who has worked in high-level positions in federal government agencies for at least 30 years, has served on the board of directors of D.C.’s Capital Pride Alliance, which organizes most of D.C.’s LGBTQ Pride events, for 15 years. But Micone resigned from the board this week, just months before the city’s WorldPride celebration that is expected to draw 2+ million visitors to D.C. in May and June.

Micone most recently served as head of the Department of Labor’s Office of the Assistant Secretary for Administration and Management, according to a report by Reuters. But his tenure as Secretary of Labor will be a short appointment.

Trump has nominated former U.S. Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, a Republican from Oregon, to be the permanent Secretary of Labor. Her nomination is expected to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate in the next week or two.

Micone’s appointment as acting Secretary of Labor became Trump’s second appointment of an out gay man to a U.S. Cabinet position. In November, shortly after his election as president, Trump nominated gay hedge fund executive Scott Bessent to be U.S. Treasury Secretary.

The Senate Finance Committee this week voted to approve Bessent’s  nomination and to send it to the full Senate for final approval.

Micone couldn’t immediately be reached by the Washington Blade for comment. Ashley Smith, chair of the Capital Pride Alliance board, said Micone informed the board he was stepping down this week as a board member due to his new duties as Acting Secretary of Labor.

The Capital Pride Alliance website includes a short biography of Micone that says he has served on the organization’s board since 2010 and until his resignation this week served as Vice President of Operations and Treasurer. 

“Vince serves as co-chairperson of the Combined Federal Campaign of the National Capital Area, which has raised $732 million for charities in our community, across the nation, and around the world under his leadership,” the Capital Pride write-up says.

“Vince has served as an elected Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner in D.C, a member of the Mayor’s LGBT Commission, and Chairperson of the D.C. Commission on National and Community Service,” according to the write-up. “He has participated in many LGBTQ+ organizations, is a DC Front Runner, and served as a fierce advocate for HIV programming and quality for our community,” it says.

The Reuters report says that prior to working at the Department of Labor, Micone held positions with the Department of Commerce, Department of Treasury, and Department of Homeland Security. Reuters also reported that Micone served on Trump’s 2016 presidential transition team.

On Thursday, Micone sent an email to all Labor Department staffers informing them that, “We are taking steps to close all agency [Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility] offices and end all DEIA-related contracts in accordance with President Trump’s Executive Orders … These programs divided Americans by race, wasted taxpayer dollars, and resulted in shameful discrimination.”

The email, which bears Micone’s name and title, goes on to threaten any department employees who “disguise these programs by using coded or imprecise language.”

The same letter has been sent to other federal agencies.