Proposed U.S. rule would allow shelters to turn away trans homeless people

The U.S. government proposed a rule on Friday that would let homeless shelters deny access to transgender people based on their gender identity, a proposal that rights supporters said marks an “unconscionable” setback for trans acceptance. The rule would apply to federally funded, single-sex shelters and is intended to better protect homeless women while respecting “the religious beliefs of shelters,” according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

Announcing the rule earlier this month, HUD Secretary Ben Carson said it would “empower shelter providers to set policies that align with their missions, like safeguarding victims of domestic violence or human trafficking.” It now will undergo a 60-day period of public comment. The proposal by the administration of President Donald Trump rescinds protections for trans people enacted under former President Barack Obama and is the latest effort by the current administration to roll back LGBT+ rights, advocates said.

HUD said government-funded shelters are not allowed to discriminate against anyone who is transgender, but rights advocates said the proposal opens the door to prejudice and potential abuse. The proposal would allow shelters to determine a person’s sex “based on a good faith belief,” using physical attributes such as facial hair or an Adam’s apple to decide whether the person fit with the facility’s gender policy. Shelters who deny access to people based on their sex would have to offer a transfer recommendation to another facility. HUD did not respond to a Thomson Reuters Foundation request for comment.

Vice President Mike Pence is an evangelical conservative who as governor of Indiana signed a religious freedom law that would have allowed businesses to deny services to LGBT+ people. The law was later revised. The Trump administration has banned trans applicants from the military and rescinded discrimination protections for transgender people in healthcare.It argued against extending workplace discrimination protections to gay and trans people, but the U.S. Supreme Court decided otherwise in expanding the nation’s Civil Rights Act to LGBT+ workers in June.

Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation