The erasure of federal LGBTQ data
On January 20, 2025, President Donald Trump issued an executive order stating that the federal government would no longer recognize transgender, nonbinary, and intersex people. Ths new report finds that, following the order, approximately 360 federal data collections have removed at least one sexual orientation or gender identity (SOGI) measure in the past year.
Of the 360 removals, 338 removed the option for people to indicate their gender identity. However, 60 data collections also removed sexual orientation data elements, even though the executive order did not require it.
SOGI measures were removed from various federal data collections, including administrative surveys and national surveys such as the CDC’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System.