In a series of unpublicized revisions last month, the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) has removed all references to gender and gender identity from at least four federal surveys, The Appeal reports.

The changes mean the federal government will no longer monitor violent crimes and other forms of abuse experienced by trans people.

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The revisions take place amid the Trump administration’s erasure of trans identity from the federal government in accordance with Trump’s “gender ideology” executive order issued on his first day in office.

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At least four major surveys are affected: The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), the School Crime Supplement, the Survey on Sexual Victimization (SSV), and the Survey of Inmates in Local Jails (SILJ).

“The removal of sexual orientation and gender identity questions from federal surveys is devastating to our understanding of LGBT populations’ health and wellbeing,” Ilan Meyer, senior scholar for public policy and sexual orientation law at the Williams Institute of UCLA, said.

“Such data is important for setting policy goals for interventions,” Meyer said. “The removal of sexual orientation and gender identity data will leave policymakers, researchers, and advocates with no valid information on the victimization of LGBT people.”

The National Crime Victimization Survey questions about a quarter of a million respondents annually about their experiences with crime, including those not reported to law enforcement. The NCVS is a critical counterpart to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report, which collects data solely on crimes reported to police departments. 

BJS added questions on gender identity and sexual orientation in 2016. By analyzing data from the NCVS, the Williams Institute found that LGBTQ+ people experienced violent crime at a rate five times that of non-LGBTQ+ people.

The NCVS’s School Crime Supplement focuses on crimes that occur in educational facilities and includes questions about bullying. The revised survey removes gender-identity-based harassment questions and replaces them with a question that only mentions “sex.”

“During this school year, has anyone called you an insulting or bad name at school having to do with your race, religion, ethnic background or national origin, disability, sex – including being male or female, or sexual orientation?” the new question reads.

The Survey on Sexual Victimization (SSV) is mandated by the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA), a law with outsized effect on trans inmates and one the Trump administration is undermining with devastating cuts to funding.

The revised SSV survey, directed at correctional officials, eliminates gender identity questions and asks only about the victim’s sex, which the questionnaire does not define.

The Survey of Inmates in Local Jails collects data from incarcerated people detained in local facilities about assault, their access to medical care, substance abuse treatment, and mental health outcomes. Respondents can now only identify themselves as their sex assigned at birth.

“Trans kids in youth facilities are sexually assaulted at horrifying rates,” Linda McFarlane, executive director of Just Detention International, told The Appeal. “Despite many risks, some of them report the abuse, creating a formal record that has helped advocates and corrections officials understand this violence and take steps to stop it. Now the government is turning its back on those kids, and doing so under the cover of darkness, without any chance for public comment.”

An “entire body of research is being undermined, simply because the government hates trans people,” McFarlane said.

Last week, Trump’s Department of Justice defunded the National PREA Resource Center, which provides federally funded training and technical assistance to states and localities to stay in compliance with federal standards.

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