OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
1:35 PM – Friday, February 7, 2025
Scott Turner, the secretary of housing and urban development (HUD), declared that the agency will no longer condition funding for homeless shelters and other federally-run facilities in relation to whether or not they accommodate a person’s “gender identity,” as opposed to their biological sex.
On Thursday, Turner noted that the move is part of President Donald Trump’s plan to “restore biological truth to the federal government.”
“I am directing the HUD staff to halt any pending or future enforcement actions related to HUD’s 2016 equal access rule, which in essence tied housing programs, shelters and other facilities funded by HUD, to quote, gender identity,” Turner told reporters.
“We are carrying out the mission laid out by President Trump on January 20, when he signed an executive order to restore biological truth to the federal government,” he added.
“This means recognizing there are only two sexes, male and female. It’s time to get rid of all the far-left gender ideology.”
In 2016, HUD issued a rule under then-President Barack Obama that gave homeless shelters and other federally-funded institutions “equal access,” irrespective of sex or sexual orientation. The law essentially only allowed funding for facilities that housed transgender people seeking their services, especially those that are single-sex or sex-segregated. The law also forced biological women to live in uncomfortable conditions by requiring them to share shelter space with gender dysphoric men who identify as transgender women, according to The Post.
On example of this occurred after nine women in California filed a lawsuit in 2018 against a women’s shelter in Fresno, which operated with public funds. The women accused the shelter of forcing them to “take showers alongside a biological male who identified as a woman,” whom they claimed had consistently sexually harassed them.
Nevertheless, advocates of the former rule have argued that it was crucial for the LGBTQ community — as it eliminated discrimination against transgender individuals who could have been turned away from other shelters.
During his first week in office, President Trump signed a number of executive acts declaring that Americans are “either male or female” due to their “immutable biological classification.”
The administration’s directives aim to safeguard female-only spaces, such as women’s locker rooms and restrooms, while also protecting women’s sports from the inclusion of biological males, whose athletic advantages from male puberty are well-documented by science.
Since many faith-based organizations operate emergency shelters for the homeless, the Obama requirement was also repealed under the first Trump administration in order to allow beneficiaries of HUD funds to not be forced to violate their own religious convictions.
When transgender people were turned away from shelters with rigid, sex-segregated rooms, the 45th and 47th president had also mandated that they be given options for alternative shelters that could accommodate them — despite LGBTQ activitsts claiming that Trump hates their community.
At a news conference on Thursday, the recently confirmed head of HUD also stated that Trump officials were currently “working on a DOGE task force” to “maximize” the department’s efficiency.
“There is more to come, but as I’ve said before, we’re going to take inventory of all of HUD’s programs and ensure every dollar that goes out of the door is advancing HUD’s mission, which is to provide quality, affordable homes,” he said.
After being confirmed by the Senate the previous day in a bipartisan vote, Turner immediately went to work at the HUD headquarters on Thursday to announce the rule change.
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