The country’s largest anti-sexual violence organization has eliminated vital resources for LGBTQ+ people in an effort to comply with the president’s executive order banning institutions with DEI programming from receiving federal funding.

The organization RAINN no longer allows employees at its crisis hotline to refer callers to LGBTQ+-specific resources and organizations that can help them, according to the New York Times. More than two dozen resources have reportedly been removed from the permissible referral list, with immigrant-related groups also being removed.

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A group of angry RAINN volunteers sent a letter to the board decrying the move.

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“When trans, queer, Black, brown, Asian and undocumented survivors come to the hotline in crisis, we are not allowed to provide them with the same level of supportive care as other survivors,” they wrote. “RAINN may face uncertain risks in the future if we stand by marginalized survivors, but we are certain to lose our values now if we do not stand with them today.”

The letter mentioned how the Trevor Project, which runs a crisis hotline for LGBTQ+ youth, has refused to cut any services and is instead campaigning for emergency donations in case of any lost funding. It also brought up the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, which apologized for removing content on trans people from its website out of fear and restored the information. So far, it has not lost funding.

“What we are asking you today is not even as expansive as these examples of public leadership,” the letter said. “We are simply requesting the quiet but immediate restoration of internal services for all survivors.”

In audio provided to the Times from a volunteer meeting, RAINN spokesperson Jennifer Simmons Kaleba said she understood why they were upset and that they are “trying to be as thoughtful as we can within the circumstances.” She said she knows they are “going to think we had better options to choose from, and they’re going to be mad, and I don’t blame them.”

She also told the Times directly that people have not reported a decline in service since the referral list was downsized.

“In an environment where nonprofits are trying to do everything we can to stay open, to stay active, to support as many survivors as we can through some pretty unprecedented times, it’s disappointing that that can’t be our singular focus,” she said.

Immediately after his inauguration, the president signed an executive order on “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing.” The order called DEI programs “illegal and immoral” and said they “demonstrated immense public waste and shameful discrimination.”

The administration then sent federal agencies notices to terminate any funding to organizations serving transgender people and entities they deemed “equity-related.”

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