Trump Administration Proposal Reopens Debate on Transgender Access to Homeless Shelters

The public comment period is now open on a Trump administration proposal to allow federally funded homeless shelters to deny transgender women access to women’s bathrooms and sleeping quarters.

People have until June 29 to put in their two cents on the Federal Register's website.

Toni Newman, who chairs the board of directors at the nonprofit Trans Can Work, said the administration would replace the terms “gender” and “gender identity” with the word “sex” in the nondiscrimination clause of the Equal Access Rule, as it applies to shelters.

This rule was really established to ensure that federally funded housing and shelter programs operate with fairness," Newman said. "No one really should be denied shelter or made to feel unwelcome, unsafe because of simply who they are."

The administration’s proposed rules say the change is necessary to protect the safety of other people in the facility, and it allows shelter employees to ask questions or require evidence to prove a person’s sex at birth. However, the feds do not cite any evidence of harassment or harm done to shelter residents by transgender women staying in these areas.

President Donald Trump tried to advance a similar rule during his first administration, but the proposal was rescinded under President Joe Biden.

Newman said this type of discrimination violates transgender people’s constitutional right to equal access.

"Let's make it a equal playing field," Newman said. "Make it equal, and that's all I'm asking. Just fairness. Fairness to the poor."

The 2022 U.S. Transgender Equality Survey found that one in three transgender people experiences homelessness at some point, and 40% of the homeless youth population identifies as LGBTQ+.