On Monday, a federal court in Oakland, California, blocked several of President Trump’s executive orders targeting LGBTQ+ nonprofits’ federal funding. The orders, signed on January 20, aimed to end diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and barred promoting so-called gender ideology, which affected grant recipients.
Judge Jon S. Tigar ruled that the bans discriminated against transgender people, halted funding cuts and issued a preliminary injunction protecting the named plaintiffs’ grants. The court found no legitimate governmental interest in these provisions and noted that withholding funds for using clients’ pronouns constitutes harmful speech restrictions targeting transgender people.
The ruling preserves funding for LGBTQ+ services nationwide while the case proceeds and may set precedent against similar anti-transgender policies.
