(Photo courtesy of AP) “Screenshots of the United States Census Bureau displaying error messages when searching for Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Information”
Tristin Henson
Connector Staff
Trump’s administration made the order to strip “gender ideology” from websites, contracts and emails in a memo sent on Wednesday Jan. 29, with changes ordered to be instituted by 5 p.m. that Friday (Jan. 31). Agencies were also told to disband employee resource groups, terminate grants and contracts related to gender, and replace the term “gender” with “sex” on government forms. There seemed to be a scramble on all government agencies to comply with the order, as that very same Friday countless information was taken down that had anything to do with the word “transgender” and even the term “gender” in general. However, there was no public announcement of what information was taken down on these government websites, and some information from government websites with the terms “transgender” or “gender” remain up, so people have only been finding out what was taken down once they try and go looking for it.
One government website that has taken down some of its web pages that contain these terms is the Center for Disease and Control (CDC). They have also “mandated that all scientific manuscripts produced by its researchers that are under review at a journal be withdrawn so that certain language relating to gender can be stripped from them” (Nature, 2025). Meaning that research and healthcare related to gender and transgender people, as well as nonbinary people, will be taken down or censored. When asked what he thought about this, Logan Biedermann, an LGBTQ+ Peer Leader at the Office of Multicultural Affairs, says “They’re erasing trans people, demonizing trans people…when they take away information about people like me it endangers our lives…when information, especially concerning healthcare [is taken away, they are]…directly trying to intervene in that area just for trans people just to live day to day…that’s a way to keep trans people from thriving…” Despite the memo to only take down “gender ideology,” terms related to the LGBTQ+ community in general have disappeared. This is not the only government website to enact these changes.
Among them are the U.S. Census Bureau, it has taken down any pages that talk about or contain the term “Gender Identity” or “LGBTQ.” The Federal Bureau of Prisons changed the statistics describing staff and prisoners from “Staff/Inmate Gender” to “Staff/Inmate Sex.” The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights outlining the rights of LGBTQ+ people in healthcare settings was also gone as of Friday, the website of the National Institutes of Health’s Office for Sexual & Gender Minority Research Office disappeared and the U.S. State Department got rid of the T, or transgender, in LGBT in their warning to LGBTQ+ travelers to be careful, as other countries may not be as accepting as the U.S. “LGB travelers can face special challenges abroad. Laws and attitudes in some countries may affect safety and ease of travel. Many countries do not recognize same-sex marriage. Many countries also only recognize the male and female sex markers in passports and do not have IT systems at ports of entry that can accept other sex markers.”
Despite the fact that now the U.S. has halted their processing for individuals that want to have “X” on their passports, and the future is unclear on whether or not the U.S. will accept individuals with the “X” marker on their passports already, the warning that other countries may only accept male or female on a passport is still up. There are a few other government websites that new sources have also noticed changing or taking down pages, but some government websites seem to be changing back and forth on what terms they accept.
When asked why he thought that this sudden takedown of the terms “transgender” and “gender” was taking place, especially on levels such as research and data collection, Biedermann said “They want less information out there…I think that the effect of it is going to be people knowing less about trans people, except for what the administration says about trans people…for example: you look into a dark room, turning on a light gives you more information and they really wanna keep people in the dark so that they can say ‘oh well, looks like it has three heads…well you won’t know cuz its just shadows in the dark, so, um, yeah, [it] makes me concerned.”
However, words like “transgender” or “gender” are not the only terms being censored. The CDC also took down data that has nothing to do with gender; AtlasPlus, a website that had surveillance data on HIV, viral hepatitis, STDs and TB has gone down. A page with basic information about HIV testing on the CDC’s website disappeared. The CDC’s Social Vulnerability Index, a tool that assesses community resilience if a natural disaster happens, was taken down too. Information relating to adolescent health has gone missing as well (with information relating to nutrition, physical activity, tobacco and drug use, sexual behavior). Some websites have gone back up while others remain down. When learning that this information was being taken down too Biedermann said that “Taking away the information doesn’t mean the information isn’t there and the data and real stuff the data is based on represents real people…there’s this idea that if you take the information away [it’ll go away]…[but] it doesn’t solve any problems, it’s still happening…we know the stereotype: that it [HIV and AIDS] affect gay men. So not only is it for transgender people, but it’s also for gay men…and that tells you another community that the administration wants to make suffer…especially when it comes to sexually transmitted diseases…you really, uh, you really gotta know.”
This also leads to the question: if there are no words for being transgender or for transgender healthcare, would that effectively ban transgender healthcare? Biedermann says “…I think that there is ways for the medical community to continue to serve their transgender patients. I think that it’s difficult, I think that the current administration is trying to make that really difficult. I think that companies still have an obligation to their transgender patients, at the same time, when you have no words for something, like, it makes it, of course, much more difficult to communicate in the medical industry, or the insurance industry, the ways to help people that are actually suffering in different ways in order to get treatment.”
There have been presidents that have tried to suppress information before, but it has never happened on this scale when it comes to already public data, especially with the internet around. It is also not clear if information that stayed up throughout the purge last week will stay up or will be taken down with time as well.
The confusion of what was taken down and what was put back up has left many articles out of date as to what rapidly changing information is true or not. This confusion and deletion and censorship of data has many people scrambling to take screenshots and records of important data. The American Sexually Transmitted Diseases Association posted federal STD data and treatment guidelines this past Monday that were downloaded from the CDC website last Thursday (The Washington Post, 2025). Biedermann commented on this saying, “I like the idea that this information was reshared… I think…there might be a role for nonprofits and different organizations to fulfill and continue to share information that is important and vital, and they should keep doing it…resharing reuploading, I think that’s a great way to continue to share that information that can really help save people’s lives.”
The Internet Archive/Wayback Machine has also played a vital role in this whole case, with screenshots of what websites previously looked like before the order happened available to be looked back on. This also has led many people to realize the reality of most data only being stored online and question whether having paper copies of important information should be a protocol.
While not commenting specifically on the take down of government information related to gender identity, a coalition of attorney generals, led by Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell, has formed to say that they will protect access to gender-affirming care in the face of Trump’s executive order. “Health care decisions should be made by patients, families, and doctors, not by a politician trying to use his power to restrict your freedoms. Gender-affirming care is essential, life-saving medical treatment that supports individuals in living as their authentic selves. The Trump Administration’s recent Executive Order is wrong on the science and the law.” (WWLP, 2025). When asked what Biedermann has seen from the university in terms of this matter and then from OMA, he says “I’ve gotten the message that they [UMass Lowell] still really care about what OMA is about, which is diversity equity, and inclusion, and understanding, community, friendship, showing up for each other and ourselves. I think that, they’re working with a bad hand so to speak… OMA specifically because we get a lot of federal grants for universities…I think right now there’s a lot of uncertainty…I think that it’s crazy that the entire office is under the purview of something the administration has really said that they don’t value and really backed that up by not valuing it, which is diversity and people being different…Trans lives matter, and they matter so much, and it makes me so sad when people don’t care.”
