The Department of Housing and Urban Development proposed a rule this summer to roll back protections for transgender people experiencing homelessness, allowing taxpayer-funded shelters to turn away transgender people based on a number of factors, including the shelter provider’s religious views.
Submit a comment to HUD by September 22 to demand protection for transgender people seeking access to shelters. For your comment to be counted, you must submit a unique message. Add to the letter text using the examples below as inspiration for your own message:
This proposed rule is yet another attempt by the Trump administration to authorize, fund, and embolden discrimination against transgender, non-binary, intersex, and gender nonconforming people.
Safe and stable housing is a human right. At a time when unprecedented numbers of people across our country are facing evictions and other housing concerns, HUD should focus on expanding access to housing, not encouraging shelters to turn homeless people away because they don’t match sex stereotypes.
While no substitute for safe, stable, long-term housing, temporary shelter plays a crucial role in protecting the health and safety of houseless people and connecting them to further resources. Shelter can be a life-saving alternative to sleeping on the street - or staying in an abusive home. This proposed rule will deprive people of access to resources that all people need to stay alive. And that is completely unacceptable.
- I am strongly opposed to this proposed rule because it will endanger the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in our country. I urge HUD not to go forward with it.