Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) indicated that it will be rolling back protections for homeless transgender people by allowing shelters that receive federal funding to discriminate based on gender identity. The move comes just a day after HUD Secretary Ben Carson testified before the House Financial Services Committee and said that his agency would not undertake this discriminatory action. Lisa Cylar Barrett, Policy Director at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF), released the following statement:
“The proposed rule change allowing shelters to turn away people in need based on their gender identity is inconsistent with our nation’s anti-discrimination laws and our most basic sense of decency. Denying already vulnerable populations a place to sleep is deeply cruel, though unfortunately not unusual for this administration. LDF has already sued HUD and Secretary Ben Carson over efforts that undermine the rights of communities of color and low-income Americans, and we will continue to aggressively fight for governmental policies that protect – rather than attack – civil rights.”
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Founded in 1940, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) is the nation’s first civil and human rights law organization and has been completely separate from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) since 1957—although LDF was originally founded by the NAACP and shares its commitment to equal rights. LDF’s Thurgood Marshall Institute is a multi-disciplinary and collaborative hub within LDF that launches targeted campaigns and undertakes innovative research to shape the civil rights narrative. In media attributions, please refer to us as the NAACP Legal Defense Fund or LDF.