The Trump administration wasted no time in settling in and making their promises a reality. Major changes were implemented on the White House website on day one and are still ongoing. As the new administration changes the website to reflect its goals and ideology, people in the know are deeply worried about the significance of these changes.
Among the many modifications that erase past attitudes to reflect the new administration’s direction, two pages in particular, honoring Nex Benedict and Matthew Shepard, have been removed. Both died as a result of horrifying anti-LGBTQ+ acts of violence, and their stories had been pivotal in the ongoing fight for LGBTQ+ rights and visibility.
Matthew Shepard was brutally attacked and left for dead in 1998 in a case that became a watershed moment for hate crime legislation in the United States. His death led to widespread outrage and eventually spurred legislative changes, including the passage of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act in 2009, which expanded the federal hate crime laws to include crimes motivated by a victim’s gender, sexual orientation, or identity.
Nex Benedict, similarly commemorated on the White House website, represents another significant figure in the struggle against anti-LGBTQ+ violence, symbolizing the continued vulnerability of LGBTQ+ individuals and the need for ongoing recognition and protection from the government. By removing these pages and many others like them, Trump distances himself from the previous administration’s commitments and acknowledgments to the LGBTQ+ community. These removals also signal a clear, actionable focus Trump has to roll back protections and recognition for the LGBTQ+ community at the federal level.
Specifically, the pages removed included a 2024 Biden statement honoring Benedict and a 2023 White House statement recognizing the 25th anniversary of Shepard’s death. These pages, housed in the archives of the White House website, were searched for specifically and removed.
While shocking, this comes as no surprise. This act comes along with a flurry of actions and signals that either remove support from or actively support the erasure of many identities and communities.
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