LGBTQ+ government employees are now afraid for their job security, fearing a potential rollback after the latest round of exclusionary executive orders issued by the Trump administration. It’s being referred to as a “Lavender Scare.”
Employee resource groups, which exist in departments throughout the federal government system, are officially recognized and (previously) encouraged by the higher-ups. Specific groups exist for the support of veterans, BIPoC employees, disabled employees—and of course, LGBTQ+ employees. These groups’ purpose throughout the system is to offer support to government employee demographics that don’t fall into the rich, straight, white male category that has, sadly, been traditionally valued higher within the agencies. They help break through to upper management and solve problems for employees that relate to their demographic; for example, the queer employee resource groups organize events for Pride Month, provide mental and physical healthcare connections, advocate for gender changes on documents for trans employees, and so forth.
During Trump’s first term, employees were encouraged by their government departments to join resource groups for support. However, with the targeted attacks from the executive branch on gay and trans people across the country, many employee resource groups are being labeled as “radical” and “discriminatory” and being disbanded, as a facet of DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) rollbacks happening en masse. On February 5, the Office of Personnel Management, which functions as a human resources department for the executive branch of government, issued a memorandum to all government agencies that they were to prohibit the forming and meeting of employee resource groups that followed DEI initiatives, referring to them as “unlawful.”
Following this terrifying rollback that ripped the support systems out from under them, members of the LGBTQ+ community that are currently employed by government agencies are scared of losing their jobs—or at the very least, being specifically discriminated against with no repercussions for the perpetrators. The term “Lavender Scare” is being used to refer to a potential purge of queer government employees, referencing the color used by the community as a symbol for being gay in hiding. In the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), for example, several employees have been asked to report the names of queer employee resource group organizers to higher-up officials. In the Department of the Interior, they’re being asked to name participants in these groups.
Despite Trump’s token few gay members of his cabinet, he’s issued violent and harmful executive orders specifically targeting the trans community, such as declaring the existence of two biological ‘genders’ across the United States, preventing trans women from competing in women’s sports, disallowing trans people from being in the military, and ceasing the gender-affirming healthcare of trans minors. Government departments have followed suit without being directed to—The National Park Service removed all mention of transgender people from the Stonewall Monument website, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has started tossing out cases having to do with discrimination on the basis of sexuality and gender.
