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Trump's executive orders in his second term have aimed to restrict people from changing gender markers on their passports, to expand the ban on transgender service members, to reinstate the global gag rule that blocks funding for reproductive health care, and to direct federal agencies to prevent gender-affirming care for people under 19. “If you’re able to violate the civil rights and liberties of one community or one individual, then there's no limit to it.”

In 2023, POGO senior investigator René Kladzyk released an extensive report on the ways LGBTQ people are uniquely vulnerable to surveillance.

This past week alone, about 100 LGBTQ intelligence officials were fired across agencies, as Erin in the Morning previously reported,

“Whenever you remove protections, it increases the risk to disfavored communities, and really Bell told Erin in the Morning. It also has specialized toolkits for LGBTQ youth, journalists, and protesters.

DHS Scraps Ban on Surveillance Based on Sexual Orientation (1)

A Department of Homeland Security unit eliminated policies prohibiting personnel from conducting intelligence activities based solely on a person’s gender identity or sexual orientation.

The Office of Intelligence and Analysis posted an updated policy manual late last week that removes references to those characteristics in sections that set guardrails on gathering intelligence.

The revisions follow President Donald Trump’s Jan.

20 directive to scrap policies and protections focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion across federal agencies.

We looked at an older copy of the report as well as the latest copy and found the reference had been omitted. Accessed 4 Mar. 2025.

Pauly, Madison. Following the presidential guidance in Executive Order No. 14168, "Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government," the language in the section of the policy manual referenced was changed to match the underlying statutory language in Title VI of the U.S.

Code. Even when policies are in place to ban profiling, it often does not stop the practice.

However, there are steps everyone can take to combat mass surveillance.

Erin In The Morning

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has scrapped privacy provisions which otherwise protected people from surveillance based on sexual orientation or gender identity alone, Bloomberg reported last week.

The updated policy manual “removes references to those characteristics in sections that set guardrails on gathering intelligence,” according to the report.

Accessed 4 Mar. 2025.

"DHS Quietly Axes Ban on Surveillance Based on LGBTQ Identity." Advocate, Feb. 26, 2025. It also replaced the word "gender" with "sex." The rule now states intelligence activities cannot be conducted on an individual or group solely on the basis of their "race, ethnicity, sex, religion, country of birth, nationality, or disability."

(iii) OSIC Personnel are prohibited from engaging in intelligence activities based solely on an individual's or group's race, ethnicity, sex, religion, country of birth, nationality, or disability.

“When the government decides who is ‘right’ or ‘wrong,’ surveillance becomes a tool of oppression,” Bell added.
The DHS’s policy revision reflects a broader ideological campaign against LGBTQ+ rights, framed as a rejection of “radical DEI.”
While the administration insists the changes streamline bureaucracy, civil liberties groups emphasize the human cost: eroded privacy, institutionalized discrimination, and a chilling effect on marginalized communities.
As one advocate tweeted, “This isn’t just about policy — it’s about whether we’re seen as people or targets.”
Rollbacks: DHS Ends LGBTQ+ Surveillance Protections (March 16, 2025)
#DHS #LGBTQ #Surveillance #CivilRights #HumanRights #GenderIdentity #SexualOrientation #DEI #Privacy #Authoritarianism #TrumpAdministration #PolicyChange #TransRights #Discrimination #Equality #FacialRecognition #CommunityResponse #BrennanCenter #KristiNoem #Advocacy #Rollbacks

DHS ends ban on intelligence activities targeting people for sexual orientation, gender identity

The policy manual change emerged after President Donald Trump called to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion practices at federal agencies.

As such, we rate this claim as true.
The claim emerged from the language used in the policy manual for DHS' Office of Intelligence and Analysis. The guidelines can help you secure your communications through encrypted messaging apps, lock down social media accounts, and protect your biometric data. https://www.advocate.com/politics/dhs-allows-surveillance-sexual-orientation.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation offers a surveillance self-defense toolkit on their website.
Sources
"Recent Reforms Won't Fix DHS Intelligence Abuses." Brennan Center for Justice, 25 Feb. 2025, https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/recent-reforms-wont-fix-dhs-intelligence-abuses. 21 Dec.

2023, https://glaad.org/gender-ideology-definition-meaning-anti-lgbt-online-hate/. Officials said such racial profiling was justified because it was in the name of stopping terrorism. In practice, “intelligence activities” often violate the civil liberties of marginalized groups and stymie political dissent.
Don Bell, policy counsel at the Project on Government Oversight (POGO), said the renewed policy is alarming, especially within the larger trends of government attacks on the LGBTQ community.

In Texas, the state’s Department of Public Safety was ordered to compile a list of people who had recently changed their gender markers on their driver’s license.
Kladzyk’s investigation also found that facial recognition software had been used overseas to flag women for targeted ad campaigns — technology that could just as easily be used by schools, medical institutions, law enforcement, and everyday citizens who seek to root out trans people.

"LGBTQ Federal Workers Brace for a McCarthyist Purge." Mother Jones, https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/02/queer-trans-federal-workers-fear-lgbtq-purge-lavender-scare/. The use of these characteristics is permitted only in combination with other information, and only where (1) intended and reasonably believed to support one or more of I&A's national or departmental missions and (2) narrowly focused in support of that mission (or those missions).
The change has led to speculation in numerous reports that intelligence activities, including surveillance, can now be carried out on people based solely on their sexual orientation and gender identity.