Tell HUD: Trans people deserve safe emergency shelter!

The Trump administration is ramping up its attacks on transgender communities, this time targeting people without a home to sleep in. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has just proposed a rule that would force federally funded shelters to turn away trans people or place them based on the sex listed on their birth certificate, stripping them of basic dignity and putting them in danger. If finalized, this rule will leave vulnerable and housing-insecure transgender people with nowhere safe to turn. Why is this important? Transgender people already experience homelessness at staggering rates. Forcing shelters to ignore someone’s gender identity only makes these environments more dangerous. It exposes transgender women to possible harassment, violence, and assault, and it humiliates and endangers people who are already in crisis. Nobody should have their gender or sexuality interrogated when trying to access basic safety and shelter. When our government begins to surveil our bodies, it is a dangerous and terrifying escalation of authoritarianism and control.  This rule isn’t about shelter safety—it’s about exclusion. The Trump administration has made its transphobic agenda plain, and it’s now targeting people in their most vulnerable moments, using the federal government to shut transgender people out of the last safety net available to them. Advocates say that if made official, the new rule will prevent scores of unhoused transgender people from accessing safe emergency sleeping arrangements.  I demand HUD withdraw its cruel and discriminatory shelter rule and protect the safety of unhoused trans Americans