In another reversal of the Biden administration’s expansion of federal protections for LGBTQ+ Americans, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has eliminated language in internal documents prohibiting the surveillance of individuals or groups based solely on their sexual orientation or gender identity, Bloomberg reports.

Two weeks ago, the DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis updated its policy manual to fall in line with President Donald Trump’s executive orders excising diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies from federal agencies and declaring there are only two immutable sexes, male and female.

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The terms “sexual orientation” and “gender identity,” which were added to the list of protected groups and individuals at the direction of the Biden administration, have been removed.

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Language in the manual now reads, “OSIC [Open Source Intelligence Collection] 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. 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 [Intelligence and Analysis’] national or departmental missions and (2) narrowly focused in support of that mission (or those missions).”

The Trump administration reversed Biden’s executive order facilitating the addition of “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” to the intelligence agency’s prohibited list on his first day in office.

Biden’s order, signed on his own first day in office and titled “Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation,” was hailed at the time by the Human Rights Campaign as “the most substantive, wide-ranging executive order concerning sexual orientation and gender identity ever issued by a United States president. Today, millions of Americans can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that their President and their government believe discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity is not only intolerable but illegal.”

The Office of Intelligence and Analysis focuses on domestic intelligence gathering, often involving U.S. citizens and others in the country.

It “has a long track record of civil liberties and civil rights abuses,” according to the Brennan Center for Justice.

“Since at least 2016, I&A officers have conducted interviews with people held in jails without sufficient constitutional protections, targeted journalists and activists protesting local monuments under the guise of homeland security, surveilled racial justice demonstrators, and monitored political views shared by millions of Americans — about topics like abortion, government, and elections — that DHS baldly asserts will lead to violence,” the group said following passage of the National Defense Authorization Act in 2024.

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, a longtime LGBTQ+ antagonist, was confirmed as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security in January.

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