President Donald Trump’s executive orders on DEI and transgender rights face a lawsuit from civil rights groups.
The Lambda Legal and NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund (LDF) filed this lawsuit Wednesday, arguing that these orders “will severely limit the organizations’ ability to provide critical social and health services such as HIV treatment, fair housing, equal employment opportunities, affordable credit, civil rights protections, and many others.” This lawsuit was filed on behalf of the National Urban League.
The three executive orders being challenged are “Ending Radical and Wasteful DEI Programs and Preferencing,” “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” and “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity.”
The lawsuit claims that the executive order ending DEI programs and merit based opportunity does not define “‘DEI,’ ‘DEIA,’ ‘diversity,’ ‘equity,’ ‘inclusion,’ or ‘accessibility.’”
Due to the executive orders not defining these terms, the lawsuit says that federal contractors who have “equity-related” contracts risk having those ended.
“Defendants thus disfavor federal grant recipients and contractors, including Plaintiffs, whose speech, trainings, research, and/or mission-driven services express or reflect viewpoints
that support DEIA efforts, and who seek to assist people of color, women, LGBTQ people, and people with disabilities, including people living with HIV, in overcoming systemic barriers to
equality resulting from past and current discrimination,” the lawsuit says.
For the gender ideology executive order, the lawsuit argues that the executive order expresses an “unscientific” and “demeaning” viewpoint towards transgender people and gender identity.
The lawsuit says that the federal government could disfavor federal contractors who hold different viewpoints about transgender people and gender ideology.
The LDF press release says that executive orders turn back years of civil rights progress and jeopardize organizations that advocate for transgender civil rights.
“The assault on diversity, equity, and inclusion is discriminatory at best and an attempt at institutionalized economic oppression at its worst,” Marc H. Morial, President & CEO of the National Urban League.
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Zachery Schmidt is the digital editor of The Star News Network. Email tips to Zachery at [email protected]. Follow Zachery on Twitter @zacheryschmidt2.
