Federal government websites scrubbed pages with transgender references Friday in an effort to comply with President Trump’s Day One executive order on sex and gender.
The removal of the content comes after the US Office of Personnel Management directed federal agencies earlier this week to “take down all outward facing media (websites, social media accounts, etc.) that inculcate or promote gender ideology” by 5 p.m. Friday in order to comply with Trump’s executive action.
The State Department, for example, modified a webpage that earlier this week contained information for “LGBTQI+ Travelers.”
All references to “LGBTQI+” were changed to “LGB.”
Aside from shortening the acronym, the content on the page appears to be the same, including a warning noting that many countries “do not have IT systems at ports of entry that can accept sex markers other than female and male.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention took down several pages related to transgender health as well.
CDC webpages with information on “Health Disparities Among LGBTQ Youth,” “Supporting LGBTQ+ Youth,” “Diabetes and the LGBTQ Community” and “Facts About LGBT Youth Suicide” were all removed.
A Department of Health and Human Services page housing “LGBTQI+ Resources” was also taken down. However, a Biden administration-era “Know Your Rights Guide” for “LGBTQI+ Older Adults” was still live as of Friday evening.
The website for the National Institutes of Health’s Office for Sexual & Gender Minority Research Office vanished too.
Several government webpages that appeared unrelated to gender ideology also went dark
The CDC’s AtlasPlus tool, which allows users to access data related to HIV, viral hepatitis and other sexually transmitted diseases, went offline Friday, along with the CDC’s Social Vulnerability Index, which is used to assess “the degree of social vulnerability in communities at risk of environmental catastrophes.”
A CDC page with information about HIV testing was also blank, as was the entire US Census Bureau’s website.
The CDC and the Census Bureau did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.
“OPM sent guidance to agencies to remove gender ideology-related content from their websites by 5 pm today as part of the efforts to defend women and uphold the truth of biological sex against the radical claims of gender activists,” OPM communications director McLaurine Pinover said in a statement.
“This may have been misinterpreted to mean we would shut down government websites who weren’t able to comply but that is not the plan for continuing to implement this important effort,” she added, referring to a false report that all government websites would go dark Friday.
Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order on gender ideology demanded that federal agencies remove “all statements, policies, regulations, forms, communications, or other internal and external messages that promote or otherwise inculcate gender ideology, and shall cease issuing such statements, policies, regulations, forms, communications or other messages.”
“Agency forms that require an individual’s sex shall list male or female, and shall not request gender identity,” it continued. “Agencies shall take all necessary steps, as permitted by law, to end the Federal funding of gender ideology.”
The 78-year-old president signed a similar order banning federal funding for diversity, equity and inclusion programs which has also resulted in references to DEI being scrubbed from government websites.
When asked about reports that government websites would go dark Friday to comply with his executive orders Trump responded: “That doesn’t sound like a bad idea to me.”
“DEI would have ruined our country. And now it’s dead. I think DEI is dead, so if they want to scrub the website, that’s OK with me,” he added.
