Judge Halts Trump’s LGBTQ Funding Ban
Ruling halts enforcement of executive orders aimed at defunding LGBTQ health centers for supporting DEI or transgender rights.
A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from enforcing provisions in a pair of anti-LGBTQ executive orders issued earlier this year that threatened to strip congressionally approved funding from LGBTQ service providers and health centers.
The provisions specifically target LGBTQ and HIV prevention organizations that engage in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives or that promote so-called “gender ideology” by recognizing transgender identity as valid.
On June 9, U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar of the Northern District of California ruled that several LGBTQ health centers and resource organizations suing the Trump administration over its executive orders are likely to succeed in proving the funding bans are unconstitutional, according to trans journalist Erin Reed on her Erin in the Morning Substack.
The plaintiffs — including the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, the GLBT Historical Society, the San Francisco Community Health Center, the Los Angeles LGBT Center, Prisma Health, the New York LGBT Center, the Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center in Allentown, Pa., Baltimore Safe Haven, and the Milwaukee-based trans and nonbinary trauma recovery group FORGE — argued that the administration’s threats were discriminatory and unconstitutional.
The plaintiffs argue that the administration’s threats violate their First Amendment rights by punishing them for recognizing transgender identity or using gender-affirming pronouns. They also contend the orders infringe on due process and equal protection rights, and represent an unconstitutional overreach by Trump to bypass Congress’s authority over federal spending.
The organizations, which receive tens of millions in federal funding, say losing support for promoting DEI or acknowledging transgender identity would leave them financially crippled. One plaintiff, the San Francisco Community Health Center, says it has already lost HIV prevention funding under the administration’s directives.
In a 52-page ruling, Judge Tigar wrote that the “gender termination” and “gender promotion” provisions in Trump’s executive orders violate the Constitution by censoring free speech and serve no legitimate purpose beyond targeting transgender people for disfavor.
“Plaintiffs argue that the Gender Termination Provision and Gender Promotion Provision fail any level of scrutiny because the Gender Order is ‘transparently motivated by a “bare desire to harm” transgender people,’” Tigar wrote, adding that the plaintiffs are likely to prevail on their equal protection claims. “Defendants offer no response in their opposition, nor any argument that either provision advances any legitimate government interest, and thus concede the point.”
“Indeed, the Gender Order’s express purpose is to disapprove of transgender people and declare their existence as ‘unmoored from biological facts’ and ‘false,'” Tigar continued. “This facially discriminatory objective — achieved here by denying federal funding only to grantees who recognize the existence of transgender people — is not a legitimate government interest, let alone one that justifies the overt discrimination practiced here.”
Tigar found that the defunding provisions “reflect an effort to censor constitutionally protected speech and services promoting DEI and recognizing the existence of transgender individuals.”
While acknowledging that a president has some leeway to implement political priorities, Tigar emphasized that the office cannot “weaponize Congressionally appropriated funds to single out protected communities for disfavored treatment or suppress ideas that it does not like or has deemed dangerous.”
Finding the plaintiffs are likely to succeed on their claims, Tigar issued a preliminary injunction blocking the Trump administration from enforcing the orders. He also denied a request to stay the ruling, meaning the government is immediately barred from stripping funding from the LGBTQ organizations.
“Absent injunctive relief, Plaintiffs face the imminent loss of federal funding critical to their ability to provide lifesaving healthcare and support services to marginalized LGBTQ populations,” Tigar wrote. “This loss not only threatens the survival of critical programs but also forces Plaintiffs to choose between their constitutional rights and their continued existence.”
While Tigar’s order applies only to the plaintiff organizations, it offers a potential pathway for other similarly targeted groups to challenge the executive orders and preserve their funding. The lawsuit will now move forward to be decided on its merits.
Jose Abrigo, Lambda Legal’s HIV Project Director and lead attorney on the case, called the ruling a “critical win” for the plaintiff organizations and for LGBTQ communities and people living with HIV.
“The Court blocked anti-equity and anti-LGBTQ executive orders that seek to erase transgender people from public life, dismantle DEI efforts, and silence nonprofits delivering life-saving services,” Abrigo said in a statement. “[This] ruling acknowledges the immense harm these policies inflict on these organizations and the people they serve and stops Trump’s orders in their tracks.”
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