The Trump-Vance administration is moving forward with plans to restrict federal workers from using the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program if their work involves issues related to LGBTQ individuals, immigrants, or transgender children.

Lawsuits were filed last week in more than 20 cities — including Albuquerque, N.M., Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco — challenging the administration’s efforts to withhold loan forgiveness from organizations that oppose the president and his party’s political agenda.

Created by Congress in 2007 and signed into law by then-President George W. Bush, PSLF cancels the federal student loan debts of borrowers who spend a decade or more working in public service. The program covers teachers, nurses, law enforcement officers (including members of the military), and employees of tax-exempt organizations under Section 501(c)(3). Many of those who work to support LGBTQ rights are employed by such organizations — meaning they stand to lose eligibility under the new policy.

As of 2024, more than 1 million Americans have benefited from PSLF, helping erase an estimated $74 billion in student loan debt, according to a Biden-era estimate.

Under the new rule, which takes effect July 1, 2026, the Department of Education will be able to deny loan forgiveness to workers whose government or nonprofit employers engage in activities deemed to have a “substantial illegal purpose.” The power to define that term will rest not with the courts, but with the education secretary.

The rule grants the secretary authority to exclude groups from the program if they participate in activities such as trafficking, illegal immigration, or what it calls the “chemical castration” of children — defined as the use of hormone therapy or puberty-blocking drugs, a form of gender-affirming care sometimes provided to transgender children and teens.

Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent defended the change, arguing that the new rule would better serve the American people, despite every major American physician organization research showing gender-affirming care helps more than it harms.

“It is unconscionable that the plaintiffs are standing up for criminal activity,” Kent said in a statement to NPR. “This is a commonsense reform that will stop taxpayer dollars from subsidizing organizations involved in terrorism, child trafficking, and transgender procedures that are doing irreversible harm to children.”

The Williams Institute, a leading research center on sexual orientation and gender identity law and public policy, warned that this — along with other restrictions on federal loan forgiveness — would disproportionately harm LGBTQ Americans. The institute found that more than one-third (35%) of LGBTQ adults aged 18 to 40 — an estimated 2.9 million people — hold over $93.2 billion in federal student loans. About half (51%) of transgender adults, 36% of cisgender LBQ women, and 28% of cisgender GBQ men have federal student loans.

“The proposed restrictions on student loans will particularly affect the nearly one-quarter of LGBTQ adults employed in the public or nonprofit sectors, which qualify for the Public Student Loan Forgiveness program,” said Brad Sears, Distinguished Senior Scholar of Law and Policy at the Williams Institute, who authored a brief on how the proposed changes could impact LGBTQ borrowers. “A recent executive order could potentially disqualify anyone working for an organization involved in gender-affirming care, or possibly those serving transgender individuals more broadly, from the PSLF program.”

Dick Cheney, the 46th vice president of the United States who served under President George W. Bush, passed away on Monday at the age of 84. His family announced Tuesday morning that the cause was complications from pneumonia and cardiac and vascular disease.

Cheney, one of the most powerful and influential figures in American politics over the past century, held a long and consequential career in public service. He previously served as White House chief of staff for President Gerald Ford, as the U.S. representative for Wyoming’s at-large congressional district from 1979-1989, and briefly as House minority whip in 1989.

He later served as secretary of defense under President George H.W. Bush before becoming vice president during the George W. Bush administration, where he played a leading behind-the-scenes role in the response to the Sept. 11 attacks and in coordinating the Global War on Terrorism. Cheney was also an early proponent of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, falsely alleging that Saddam Hussein’s regime possessed weapons of mass destruction and had ties to al-Qaeda.

Cheney’s personal life was not without controversy.

In 2006, he accidentally shot Harry Whittington, a then-78-year-old Texas attorney, during a quail hunt at Armstrong Ranch in Kenedy County, Texas — an incident that became the subject of national attention.

Following his death, tributes and reflections poured in from across the political spectrum.

“I am saddened to learn of the passing of former Vice President Dick Cheney,” former Vice President Kamala Harris posted on X. “Vice President Cheney was a devoted public servant, from the halls of Congress to many positions of leadership in multiple presidential administrations,” she added. “His passing marks the loss of a figure who, with a strong sense of dedication, gave so much of his life to the country he loved.”

Harris was one of the Democrats that the Republican had supported in recent years following Trump’s ascent to the White House.

Former President Joe Biden, who served as former President Obama’s vice president, said on X that “Dick Cheney devoted his life to public service — from representing Wyoming in Congress, to serving as Secretary of Defense, and later as vice president of the United States.”

“While we didn’t agree on much, he believed, as I do, that family is the beginning, middle, and end. Jill and I send our love to his wife Lynne, their daughters Liz and Mary, and all of their grandchildren,” he added.

Human Rights Campaign Senior Vice President of Federal and State Affairs JoDee Winterhof reflected on Cheney’s complicated legacy within the LGBTQ community.

“That someone like Dick Cheney, whose career was rife with anti-LGBTQ+ animus and stained by cruelty, could have publicly changed his mind on marriage equality because of his love for his daughter is a testament to the power and necessity of our stories.”

Advocacy groups have sharply criticized the Trump-Vance administration over its decision to limit the number of refugees admitted to the U.S. each year to 7,500.

The Associated Press notes the Biden-Harris administration in 2024 said it would admit up to 125,000 refugees into the country.

The Federal Registrar on Oct. 31 published a White House memorandum that noted the 7,500 cap. It states the “admissions numbers shall primarily be allocated among Afrikaners from South Africa … and other victims of illegal or unjust discrimination in their respective homelands.”

The Council for Global Equality; Human Rights First; Immigration Equality; and the Organization for Refuge, Asylum, and Migration in a joint statement they issued on Oct. 31 “decried the refugee admissions goal and its life-threatening impacts for LGBTQI+ refugees awaiting resettlement to the United States.”

“The PD (Presidential Determination), which is set at a historic low of 7,500 individuals, prioritizes white South Africans (Afrikaners) and ‘victims of illegal or unjust discrimination’ — the Trump administration’s catch phrase to offer protection to far-right extremists — in a blatant attempt to politicize the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, erode our nation’s legal obligations, and reject our historical commitments to the most vulnerable,” reads the statement.

These groups and other advocacy groups have previously said the Trump-Vance administration’s overall immigration policies have put LGBTQ migrants and asylum seekers at increased risk.

The State Department’s 2024 human rights report that it released in August “erased” LGBTQ people. Immigration Equality in response to this omission noted these reports “serve as key evidence for asylum seekers, attorneys, judges, and advocates who rely on them to assess human rights conditions and protection claims worldwide.”

The Trump-Vance administration on Jan. 20 — the day it took office — issued several immigration-specific executive orders that, among other things, suspended the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program and shut down the CBP (U.S. Customs and Border Protection) One app that allowed asylum seekers to schedule an appointment at a U.S. port of entry on the Mexican border.

Individual refugees and advocacy groups have challenged the suspension of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program in federal court.

Casa Frida, an organization that works with upwards of 300 LGBTQ asylum seekers and migrants throughout Mexico, is among the organizations that had to curtail programs after the Trump-Vance administration in January suspended nearly all U.S. foreign aid spending.

“The Trump administration’s decision to put a cap of only 7,500 refugees for the year will have mortal consequences for thousands of LGBTQI+ refugees,” said Immigration Equality Executive Director Aaron C. Morris.

ORAM Executive Director Steve Roth said the 7,500 cap is a “moral failure” and “a deliberate abandonment of the world’s most vulnerable.”

Human Rights First President Uzra Zeya is a career Foreign Service officer who was most recently the under secretary of state for civilian security, democracy, and human rights during the Biden-Harris administration. Zeya in a statement described the cap as “a national disgrace and yet another new low for this administration.”

“It endangers the lives of refugees in dire need of resettlement around the world,” she said. “All too often LGBTQI people who escape persecution in their home countries are targeted again in neighboring countries,” added Zeya. “The lives of real people are on the line. Members of Congress must demand that the administration restore this vital lifeline.”