SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Meals on Wheels and other HHS-funded community meal programs designed to support older adults could refuse to deliver food to older Americans who are Jewish, Muslim, or LGBTQ. (Photo: Gabe Souza/Portland Portland Press Herald via Getty Images)
Trump Wants to Allow Discrimination With Billions of Dollars of Federal Funding
Proposal from Health and Human Services would allow discrimination based on faith—including people who are Jewish, Muslim, Catholic—as well as LGBTQ people.
Nov 05, 2019
Last Friday, the Trump administration announced an alarming new proposal that would strip away critical protections against discrimination in grants funded by the Department of Health and Human Services.
Initially, we thought this proposal would serve to fulfill Trump's promise to give taxpayer-funded child welfare agencies a license to discriminate. This proposal does that --and so much more.
Trump proposes to eliminate existing regulations that prohibit discrimination in HHS grant-funded programs based on sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or religion, inviting discrimination against recipients of critical services. Here are just a few examples of the discrimination this rule would allow:
- Meals on Wheels and other HHS-funded community meal programs designed to support older adults could refuse to deliver food to older Americans who are Jewish, Muslim, or LGBTQ.
- Federally funded foster care agencies could refuse to place children with families because of their faith or sexual orientation, regardless of the children's needs.
- Head Start grant recipients and other federally funded child care facilities could refuse to serve children with married same-sex parents or whose parents are of a minority faith. They could also refuse to provide services to transgender youth.
You read all of that right.
Yet no one should be surprised that the Trump administration is proposing such a sweeping change that will allow discrimination in a wide variety of federal programs that play a critical - even life-saving - role in the lives of millions of Americans.
So far this year, the Trump administration has moved to roll back fair housing protections that not only aim to address housing segregation, but also help survivors of domestic violence. Trump's Labor Department wants to give federal contractors a license to discriminate against employees. Immigrants who have a disability, as well as those who may be eligible for public assistance due to their age or income, have also been the subject of attack by the Trump administration. One of the Trump administration's first actions in 2017 was to roll back protections for transgender students and this year, it told college campuses to create a double standard that treats discrimination on the basis of sex different from discrimination on the basis of race.
This isn't even the first proposal from HHS. The Department has proposed to eliminate protections from discrimination in health care that have been crucial to transgender people, women and many others. It is also working to allow hospitals, clinics and doctors' offices to be able to refuse care based on the provider's religious beliefs.
Just one month ago, the Trump administration stood before the Supreme Court and said that firing someone for being LGBTQ should be perfectly legal as well.
What gives me hope is that ACLU supporters are fighting back. Supporters have taken more than 130,000 actions to stop federal agencies from enacting Trump's previous attempts to open the door to discrimination and will soon have the chance to comment directly on the latest discriminatory proposal.
The comment period for this proposal to allow discrimination through HHS will be open for 30 days once the rule is published in the Federal Register, which could be any day.
Whether Trump is trying to rollback long-standing nondiscrimination protections, permit discrimination in the name of religion, or allow taxpayer-funded discrimination like Friday's proposal, the ACLU will continue to fight back.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
© 2023 ACLU
Louise Melling
Louise Melling (@LibertyLouise) is a Deputy Legal Director of the ACLU and the Director of its Center for Liberty. The Center encompasses the ACLU's work on reproductive freedom, women's rights, lesbian gay bisexual and transgender rights, and freedom of religion and belief. Before assuming this role, Ms. Melling was Director of the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, in which capacity she oversaw nationwide litigation, communications research, public education campaigns, and advocacy efforts in the state legislatures.
Last Friday, the Trump administration announced an alarming new proposal that would strip away critical protections against discrimination in grants funded by the Department of Health and Human Services.
Initially, we thought this proposal would serve to fulfill Trump's promise to give taxpayer-funded child welfare agencies a license to discriminate. This proposal does that --and so much more.
Trump proposes to eliminate existing regulations that prohibit discrimination in HHS grant-funded programs based on sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or religion, inviting discrimination against recipients of critical services. Here are just a few examples of the discrimination this rule would allow:
- Meals on Wheels and other HHS-funded community meal programs designed to support older adults could refuse to deliver food to older Americans who are Jewish, Muslim, or LGBTQ.
- Federally funded foster care agencies could refuse to place children with families because of their faith or sexual orientation, regardless of the children's needs.
- Head Start grant recipients and other federally funded child care facilities could refuse to serve children with married same-sex parents or whose parents are of a minority faith. They could also refuse to provide services to transgender youth.
You read all of that right.
Yet no one should be surprised that the Trump administration is proposing such a sweeping change that will allow discrimination in a wide variety of federal programs that play a critical - even life-saving - role in the lives of millions of Americans.
So far this year, the Trump administration has moved to roll back fair housing protections that not only aim to address housing segregation, but also help survivors of domestic violence. Trump's Labor Department wants to give federal contractors a license to discriminate against employees. Immigrants who have a disability, as well as those who may be eligible for public assistance due to their age or income, have also been the subject of attack by the Trump administration. One of the Trump administration's first actions in 2017 was to roll back protections for transgender students and this year, it told college campuses to create a double standard that treats discrimination on the basis of sex different from discrimination on the basis of race.
This isn't even the first proposal from HHS. The Department has proposed to eliminate protections from discrimination in health care that have been crucial to transgender people, women and many others. It is also working to allow hospitals, clinics and doctors' offices to be able to refuse care based on the provider's religious beliefs.
Just one month ago, the Trump administration stood before the Supreme Court and said that firing someone for being LGBTQ should be perfectly legal as well.
What gives me hope is that ACLU supporters are fighting back. Supporters have taken more than 130,000 actions to stop federal agencies from enacting Trump's previous attempts to open the door to discrimination and will soon have the chance to comment directly on the latest discriminatory proposal.
The comment period for this proposal to allow discrimination through HHS will be open for 30 days once the rule is published in the Federal Register, which could be any day.
Whether Trump is trying to rollback long-standing nondiscrimination protections, permit discrimination in the name of religion, or allow taxpayer-funded discrimination like Friday's proposal, the ACLU will continue to fight back.
Louise Melling
Louise Melling (@LibertyLouise) is a Deputy Legal Director of the ACLU and the Director of its Center for Liberty. The Center encompasses the ACLU's work on reproductive freedom, women's rights, lesbian gay bisexual and transgender rights, and freedom of religion and belief. Before assuming this role, Ms. Melling was Director of the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, in which capacity she oversaw nationwide litigation, communications research, public education campaigns, and advocacy efforts in the state legislatures.
Last Friday, the Trump administration announced an alarming new proposal that would strip away critical protections against discrimination in grants funded by the Department of Health and Human Services.
Initially, we thought this proposal would serve to fulfill Trump's promise to give taxpayer-funded child welfare agencies a license to discriminate. This proposal does that --and so much more.
Trump proposes to eliminate existing regulations that prohibit discrimination in HHS grant-funded programs based on sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or religion, inviting discrimination against recipients of critical services. Here are just a few examples of the discrimination this rule would allow:
- Meals on Wheels and other HHS-funded community meal programs designed to support older adults could refuse to deliver food to older Americans who are Jewish, Muslim, or LGBTQ.
- Federally funded foster care agencies could refuse to place children with families because of their faith or sexual orientation, regardless of the children's needs.
- Head Start grant recipients and other federally funded child care facilities could refuse to serve children with married same-sex parents or whose parents are of a minority faith. They could also refuse to provide services to transgender youth.
You read all of that right.
Yet no one should be surprised that the Trump administration is proposing such a sweeping change that will allow discrimination in a wide variety of federal programs that play a critical - even life-saving - role in the lives of millions of Americans.
So far this year, the Trump administration has moved to roll back fair housing protections that not only aim to address housing segregation, but also help survivors of domestic violence. Trump's Labor Department wants to give federal contractors a license to discriminate against employees. Immigrants who have a disability, as well as those who may be eligible for public assistance due to their age or income, have also been the subject of attack by the Trump administration. One of the Trump administration's first actions in 2017 was to roll back protections for transgender students and this year, it told college campuses to create a double standard that treats discrimination on the basis of sex different from discrimination on the basis of race.
This isn't even the first proposal from HHS. The Department has proposed to eliminate protections from discrimination in health care that have been crucial to transgender people, women and many others. It is also working to allow hospitals, clinics and doctors' offices to be able to refuse care based on the provider's religious beliefs.
Just one month ago, the Trump administration stood before the Supreme Court and said that firing someone for being LGBTQ should be perfectly legal as well.
What gives me hope is that ACLU supporters are fighting back. Supporters have taken more than 130,000 actions to stop federal agencies from enacting Trump's previous attempts to open the door to discrimination and will soon have the chance to comment directly on the latest discriminatory proposal.
The comment period for this proposal to allow discrimination through HHS will be open for 30 days once the rule is published in the Federal Register, which could be any day.
Whether Trump is trying to rollback long-standing nondiscrimination protections, permit discrimination in the name of religion, or allow taxpayer-funded discrimination like Friday's proposal, the ACLU will continue to fight back.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.