The CEOs of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the San Francisco Community Health Center acknowledged that they have received stop-work orders or termination notices for federal funds as a result of Republican President Donald Trump's executive orders attacking DEI initiatives and the erasure of transgender people. The two nonprofits are among eight that filed a federal lawsuit Thursday against the Trump administration and three of its executive orders.
Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund is representing the nonprofits, which also include the GLBT Historical Society in San Francisco, the Los Angeles LGBT Center, the New York City LGBT Community Center, Prizm in Arizona, FORGE in Wisconsin, and Baltimore Safe Haven in Maryland.
Lambda Legal filed a separate federal lawsuit February 19 on behalf of the National Urban League and other plaintiffs that also targets the DEI executive orders. The acronym stands for diversity, equity and inclusion, and Republicans have rallied against DEI programs with claims they discriminate based on people's race.
SFAF lawsuit
In the SFAF lawsuit, representatives of the plaintiff organizations spoke on a Zoom call Thursday afternoon, as did Kevin Jennings, a gay man and former Obama administration official who is now CEO of Lambda Legal.
"This is Lambda's fourth lawsuit" against the second Trump administration, Jennings said. "We've seen this movie before. In Trump's first term, we sued 14 times and had 12 wins. That's an 86% win rate. For the 18th time, we'll see you in court."
Lance Toma, a gay man who is CEO of the San Francisco Community Health Center, said on the call that his organization, which is a federally qualified health center, received a stop-work order February 1 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention related to a contract to support young trans people of color in San Francisco and Oakland.
"Since then, we've received a termination notice," he said.
Tyler TerMeer, Ph.D., a gay Black man living with HIV who is CEO of SFAF, said his organization has seen federal funds frozen. It was also ordered to scrub mentions of trans and nonbinary people from its website. It has not done so, according to its website, which continues to include information about its TransLife program.
"Today, we take an urgent and necessary stand," he said of joining the lawsuit. "We will not comply with policies that put lives at risk."
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, San Francisco Division. It challenges Trump's executive order No. 14168, which repudiates the very existence of transgender people and prohibits federal contractors and grantees from recognizing and respecting their identities or advocating for their civil rights. The lawsuit also challenges executive orders No. 14151 and 14173, which terminate equity-related grants and prohibit federal contractors and grantees from employing diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility principles in their work, a news release stated.
The lawsuit comes after federal agencies sent notices terminating federal funding to organizations serving transgender people and to entities whose work could be described as "equity-related" because they devote resources to underserved communities, address health disparities, or work to overcome systemic racism, sexism, or anti-LGBTQ bias, the release stated. Some already have experienced temporary difficulties accessing their federal funds.
"These executive orders pose an existential threat to transgender people and the organizations that advocate for them and provide them shelter, community, and support. Plaintiffs are HIV service organizations, community centers, and health care facilities whose work saves lives, in addition to a historical society whose mission is to record the stories of LGBTQ people. They join this lawsuit to fight the Trump administration's attempt to erase transgender people from public life, and to continue the services they provide to marginalized communities, including communities of color and people living with HIV," stated Jose Abrigo, Lambda Legal's HIV Project Director and lead lawyer on the lawsuit.
"If these executive orders stand, it sets a dangerous precedent," Abrigo said on the call.
And he noted it's not just health-related organizations that will suffer harm. Groups like the GLBT Historical Society, which promote historical truth, also will experience injury, he said.
Roberto Ordeñana, executive director of the society, said, "There is no LGBT without the 'T.'"
"These executive orders seek to erase the rich history of the LGBTQ+ community by targeting transgender, gender-nonconforming, nonbinary, and intersex people," he added. "The administration's actions create fear in our community."
Joe Hollendoner, a gay man who's CEO of the LA LGBT Center, said the agency is also a federally qualified health center and serves thousands of clients annually. Hollendoner, who used to be CEO of SFAF, said providers have already begun removing references to the LGBTQ community in materials for intimate partner violence that the center uses.
Hollendoner said the center continues to provide gender-affirming care, but pointed out Children's Hospital Los Angeles has stopped accepting new patients. He said the Trump executive orders have created confusion among the public.
Toma said the San Francisco Community Health Center has also not stopped providing gender-affirming care.
"We are resolute about that," he said. "We've seen trans clients frightened."
Jessyca Leach, CEO of Prisma Community Care in Arizona, said the organization is "grappling with conflicting" actions – either to alter its mission or suffer financial support from the federal government. Leach said Prisma is not accepting new clients now and is seeking other funds so that it is not as dependent on federal dollars.
Renee Lau, a trans woman with Baltimore Safe Haven, said the entire community depends on the organization.
"We are devastated by what's happening in the White House right now," she said.
The organization is the city's only trans-led drop-in wellness center, according to its website.
Urban League suit
Lambda Legal's other suit, announced February 19, is National Urban League v. Trump and alleges that the above-mentioned trio of executive orders are illegal – "Defending women from gender ideology extremism and restoring biological truth to the federal government," which the president signed January 20; "Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing," which he signed the same day; and "Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity," which he signed the following day. It was filed alongside lawyers from the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
The National Urban League was joined in the suit by the AIDS Foundation of Chicago and the National Fair Housing Alliance. It was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
The complaint alleges that the anti-transgender executive order disagrees with the Supreme Court's interpretation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in Bostock v. Clayton County (2020), which interpreted the act's definition of sex discrimination to include discrimination against transgender people. It's also alleged that the DEI executive orders signed January 20 and 21 are illegal because it doesn't define the terms "'DEI,' 'DEIA,' (diversion, equity, inclusion and accessibility) 'diversity,' 'equity,' 'inclusion,' or 'accessibility,'" the complaint states.
"Because the Ant[i]-Diversity [order] does not define these terms, federal contractors and grantees, including plaintiffs, who have 'equity-related' grants or contracts, risk having contracts or grants that defendants may consider to be 'equity-related' terminated," the complaint states. "The sweep of Defendants' prohibition and punitive action appears to be unduly broad."
The complaint continues that "Defendants ... disfavor federal grant recipients and contractors, including plaintiffs, whose speech, trainings, research, and/or mission-driven services express or reflect viewpoints that support DEIA efforts, and who seek to assist people of color, women, LGBTQ people, and people with disabilities, including people living with HIV, in overcoming systemic barriers to equality resulting from past and current discrimination."
Abrigo, who is lead counsel on the case, stated, "These policies drip with contempt for transgender people, and pose a significant threat to critical health and HIV services that support marginalized communities, putting lives at risk.
"These orders pose an existential threat to transgender people and the organizations that provide them with shelter and support," Abrigo continued in a news release. "The orders defund organizations providing critical health and HIV services, and punish organizations for striving to improve the lives of Black people, people of color, and members of other marginalized communities. They are patently unconstitutional."
He noted that Lambda Legal and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund teamed up on the federal lawsuit "because the fights to end racism, the HIV epidemic, and anti-transgender bias are inseparable. For organizations like our plaintiffs providing these services, addressing these compounding barriers is essential to HIV prevention and care, and this policy would impede the work to eradicate and address the HIV epidemic."
Will, an AIDS Foundation Chicago program participant whose last name was not given, put the issue starkly in terms of his status as someone living with HIV.
"As a Black man living with HIV who has experienced homelessness, for years, I have relied on the lifesaving services of organizations like AIDS Foundation Chicago (AFC), who understood my intersectional identities," Will stated. "Now, as I work in the HIV field, I am deeply concerned about the threat these orders represent to AFC's ability to serve our communities if they can't even name the issues our people are facing."
Janai Nelson, the president and director-counsel of the NAACP LDF, stated that "Beyond spreading inaccurate, dehumanizing, and divisive rhetoric, President Trump's executive orders seek to tie the hands of organizations, like our clients, providing critical services to people who need them most."
Nelson stated the orders exhibited racial bias.
"The three orders we are challenging today perpetuate false and longstanding stereotypes that Black people and other underrepresented groups lack skills, talent, and merit – willfully ignoring the discriminatory barriers that prevent a true meritocracy from flourishing," Nelson continued. "We proudly stand with our clients and Lambda Legal against these unconstitutional orders and hope the court will act quickly so the arduous work of advancing and sustaining our multiracial democracy can continue without unlawful interference from the Trump administration."
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