US intelligence removes the T from LGBT+ – even in reports of threats to the queer community

The Office of Intelligence and Analysis in the Department of Homeland Security has seemingly removed the ‘T’ from LGBT+ in reports about threats to the queer community during Pride Month.

Reported by Ken Klippenstein on his news site KlipNews, which is “dedicated to revealing what the national security state is actually up to”, documents issued by the office show the queer community is referred to as the “LGB+” community rather than the more commonly used “LGBT+” or “LGBTQ+” community.

When Trump took returned to the White House for his second term in January signed an executive order ending government backed diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) programmes as part of his wider campaign against so-called ‘woke’ initiatives.

In the months following several government departments, offices and agencies have bowed to Trump’s demands and fired employees working DEI roles and deleted countless webpages, reports and references to anything vaguely associated with the LGBTQ+ community or wider minority groups.

This has included the FBI painting over a wall listing its core values including “diversity” and information about trans and non-binary people being stripped from the Stonewall National Monument webpage on the its National Park Service website.

The sweeping purge of DEI content has also resulted in unrelated content being unintentionally removed, such as images of the famed World War II aircraft Enola Gay being flagged for deletion simply because its name includes the word gay.

In the documents obtained by Klippenstein the reports detail all the threats the community could face from anti-LGBTQ+ activists including where attacks could take place, what methods could be used to harm the community and how law enforcement could prevent violent and fatal incidents.

“Anti-LGB+ grievances”

It also details the different community groups and demographics at risk but makes no reference to transgender people whatsoever.

“The threat of violence against the LGB+ community and Pride events primarily stems from ideologically motivated lone offenders or small groups of individuals with anti-LGB+ grievances,” the report reads as quoted by Klippenstein, using the trans exclusionary acronym.

“According to NYPD [New York Police Department], several acts of violence and intimidation targeting the LGB+ community have occurred over the past several years in the NYC area.”

Removal of trans references by the Homeland Security department is unsurprising given Trump’s campaign against DEI but also given the anti-trans views of Kristi Noem and Tulsi Gabbard, the secretary of homeland security and director of national intelligence respectively.

Noem, the former governor of South Dakota governor and a Trump ally who was once even tipped as a possibly running mate, has long been a vocal opponent of LGBTQ+ rights.

In 2022 she signed a bill banning trans student-athletes from playing in sports leagues that align with their gender identity and in 2023 banned gender affirming care for trans youth in the state.

Her ban on trans healthcare resulted in the state’s Department of Health terminating a contract with a trans group called The Transformation Project, which Noem claimed was “dividing our youth with radical ideologies”.

“Insanity and darkness”

The group sued the state for discrimination over the cancelled contract and the case went in their favour, with the state being forced to issue a letter of apology and pay a $300,000 (£235,000) settlement.

Gabbard, a former Democrat, backs trans sports bans and in August described trans people as “insanity and darkness”.

“One manifestation of their darkness and desire to be God is their belief that any man can become a woman, and any woman can become a man,” she wrote in the wake of the mass shooting in Minneapolis.

“This is the insanity and darkness that has unfortunately perpetuated today’s Democrat Party, and is one of the reasons why I could no longer associate myself with them.