22-02-2025
SF community groups sue Trump over anti-trans executive orders
Local LGBTQ-serving community organizations are among nine nonprofits that sued the Trump administration Friday over executive orders targeting transgender and nonbinary people.
Why it matters: President Trump ran his campaign on an incendiary anti-trans platform that promoted false claims about the community, which make up 1.3% of U.S. adults.
State of play: One of his first actions in office was to direct the federal government to only recognize two sexes, male and female.
He has since ordered federal agencies to limit gender-affirming care for youth, restrict information about trans issues and bar trans women and girls in federally-funded schools from participating in sports that align with their gender identity.
Driving the news: Filed by Lambda Legal, the lawsuit alleges Trump's actions "pose an existential threat to transgender people and the organizations that ... provide them with life-saving services."
The plaintiffs, which include San Francisco AIDS Foundation (SFAF), GLBT Historical Society and San Francisco Community Health Center, are asking the district court to declare the orders unconstitutional and block their implementation.
The lawsuit also accuses the Trump administration of expressing "a disparaging, demeaning, idiosyncratic, and unscientific viewpoint about transgender people and gender identity."
That exponentially increases harm against trans people — who are already four times more likely to be victims of violent crime — and other marginalized populations, plaintiffs argue.
What they're saying: "These executive orders attempt to erase an entire community and enshrines blatant discrimination as national policy" while threatening to withdraw funds from organizations "simply because they acknowledge the reality of the people they serve," Lambda Legal's Jose Abrigo, the lead lawyer in the case, said in a press call Friday.
"Moreover, if these executive orders stand, they set a dangerous precedent where the government can dictate what private organizations, researchers and service providers can say and do, even when it contradicts established medical, legal and historical fact."
Zoom in: The legal challenge comes after federal agencies sent notices terminating federal funding to organizations that serve trans people and other underserved communities, according to Lambda Legal.
"We will not sit by and let this happen without a fight," SF Community Health Center CEO Lance Toma said in the press call.
Between the lines: Both SF Community Health Center and SFAF receive millions of federal dollars annually to provide its services. That includes free HIV testing and prevention work, mpox interventions, culturally competent care and programs that address disparities in health outcomes.
Taking away that funding would force them to reduce services and turn away clients, the lawsuit argues. SFAF alone serves roughly 27,000 clients per year.
The GLBT Historical Society, whose founding members included trans people, has similarly relied on federal funding to preserve materials related to LGBTQ+ communities for nearly 20 years.
Trump's orders would force potential cuts to staff and operations, leading to a loss of access to priceless archives that reflect "accurate representations of transgender, nonbinary, and gender-expansive people throughout time," the lawsuit alleges.
Other nonprofits involved in the lawsuit include Prisma Community Care in Arizona, the NYC LGBT Community Center, Bradbury-Sullivan Community Center in Pennsylvania, Baltimore Safe Haven and FORGE in Wisconsin.
The other side: Trump has said his executive orders are an effort to defend women from "gender ideology extremism" and restore "biological truth."
On the campaign trail last year, he frequently lambasted what he called " transgender craziness" and falsely claimed that gender-affirming operations are being conducted in schools without parents' knowledge.
The White House did not immediately return our request for comment.
Go deeper: One month of fear for groups targeted by Trump's executive orders
