The Trump administration has removed a page from the Social Security Administration (SSA) website that explained how to change one’s gender marker on their Social Security record.
According to text that still appears in Google search, the page initially stated, “you do not need to provide medical or legal evidence of your sex designation” to update your records. Now, however, if you try to click through to the gender identity page from Google, you are given an error page.
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Donald Trump revokes LBJ’s historic Equal Employment Opportunity order
The order had been in place for 60 years.
Another link provided by the search engine to a different SSA page on changing sex identification merely brings you to a blank screen that states, “You are not authorized to access this page.”
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Ari Drennen, LGBTQ program director for Media Matters, told followers on Bluesky that if they still want to try to change their sex markers, to look up “form SS-5” and bring it to their local SSA office.
And just like that, the “how to change sex identification” page has vanished from the Social Security Administration website.
— Ari Drennen (@aridrennen.bsky.social) January 23, 2025 at 2:09 AM
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If you still are trying to get this changed, look up “form SS-5” and print it out and bring it to your local office.
— Ari Drennen (@aridrennen.bsky.social) January 23, 2025 at 2:46 AM
Mimicking the actions taken at the start of Donald Trump’s first term, the Trump administration has been purging federal websites of LGBTQ+ content since the moment he was inaugurated.
Prior to Trump’s second inauguration on Monday, GLAAD “created an archive of mentions of LGBTQ terms and terms related to HIV on the White House website and other major federal government websites in anticipation of Trump’s second term,” the nonprofit said in a statement.
The group cataloged more than 50 links to LGBTQ+- and HIV-related content on web pages for the White House and Departments of State, Education, Justice, Defense, Health and Human Services, and Labor, as well as other agencies including the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Most of those have now been wiped from federal government websites.
As of Tuesday, GLAAD said, terms including “lesbian,” “bisexual,” “gay,” “transgender,” “sexual orientation,” “gender identity,” and “LGBTQ” are “no longer accessible on WhiteHouse.gov,” and “LGBTQ-specific pages have been taken down from sites for the Centers for Disease Control, Department of State, and more.”
Those include 94 previously available entries at the State Department for “LGBT Rights” along with information and resources on “LGBTQI+ Policy” once provided by the Department of Labor.
Pages removed include WhiteHouse.gov’s equity report; a fact sheet with information on expanding access to HIV prevention and treatment; and information about LGBTQ Pride Month.
Trump also signed a day one executive order declaring that there are only two sexes (male and female) and directing federal agencies to start using the term “sex” and stop using the term “gender,” to stop interpreting anti-discrimination laws as being inclusive of transgender people, and to only issue government documents that reflect a person’s sex assigned at birth.
The order directs all federal government departments and agencies to “remove all statements, policies, regulations, forms, communications, or other internal and external messages that promote or otherwise inculcate gender ideology.” It also says, “Federal funds shall not be used to promote gender ideology” and instructs the Bureau of Prisons to revise its policies to ensure that federal inmates do not receive “any medical procedure, treatment, or drug for the purpose of conforming an inmate’s appearance to that of the opposite sex.”
Furthermore, it directs the secretaries of State and Homeland Security and the director of the Office of Personnel Management to require that government-issued identification documents — including passports, visas, Global Entry cards, and personnel records — “accurately reflect the holder’s sex.”
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