Organizations such as the Boys and Girls Club of America, the Rape, Abuse, & Incest National Network, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children are among dozens erasing trans people.
We need to start protesting these non profits. This is absolutely ridiculous and evil.
🤬😡😡😡
NCMEC And RAINN especially.
NCMEC ; Do you think all exploited children are never transgender. That it plays no part in their exploitation. What A Crock. You effectively tying your hands with this.
RAINN; do you think only cisgender people get raped. This is insane.
This is the script I am submitting to RAINN through this site, as well as emailing whatever contacts are listed on the page. I will also post similar things for the other orgs mentioned in this article:
Hello,
I am writing because I am extremely disappointed to learn that RAINN has eliminated references to trans individuals from its website.
According to a UCLA study in 2021, transgender people are four times as likely to experience rape or sexual assault as cisgender people are. In 2019, the National Sexual Violence Resource Center compiled a staggering amount of information regarding sexual violence against trans and nonbinary people, and the numbers are terrifying. The National Library of Medicine reported in 2023 that half of the trans population will experience sexual violence in their lifetime. I don't have to tell you that this research is the tip of the iceberg.
In time when our government is escalating violence against this vulnerable population, your erasure of these same people is extremely loud and wildly against your purported mission to "prevent sexual violence, help survivors, and ensure that perpetrators are brought to justice." Your decision to comply with an executive order that is NOT law, and is FAR from enforceable, is extremely damning.
Do what is right, and stand up for your trans and nonbinary victims. Where else can they turn to, if not to RAINN??
Here is my script for boys and girls club (it's more personal, as I have worked with a local one, but easily adapted). Sent thru their general contact form, as well as emailed to their advocacy@... and their director of public relations. (elynch@...)
I'm a librarian in Rhode Island, who works just up the road from my local Boys and Girls Club. When I ran the teen room at the library, I was very happy to collaborate with our B&G, sharing resources to area teens. At the time, I ran a very active Teen GSA, which continues today as our teen Pride Club. I got to know the town's area trans and nonbinary kids, and see first-hand how important it was for them to have local spaces to just be themselves without fear.
While I appreciate that the Boys & Girls Club website still includes information for the general "LGBTQ+" population, I was disappointed to learn that specific references to how B&G stands up for the transgender community have been removed from your website. Despite the Trump administration's executive orders against trans kids, nothing has been written into law, and, in fact, multiple judges have blocked the Trump administration's attempts to discriminate against trans youth. Therefore, B&G has no reason to comply with these orders, which are not enforceable.
But B&G clubs have every reason to stand up for trans youth, and to do so plainly. I hope you reinstate the information you have removed, especially pivotal stories like "Growing Up Kate," which makes it clear that trans and nonbinary youth have a place at Boys and Girls Clubs. You partner with The Trevor Project, an organization that has reported a frightening increase of suicide attempts by trans youth in response to anti-trans laws: a devastating 72%. Organizations like the Boys and Girls Club need to do everything they can to make it clear that no matter what a discriminatory government says, trans youth are celebrated and loved.
I just learned this: "Independent journalist Mady Castigan first reported that the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) quietly removed all mentions of LGBTQ+ individuals from its website."
This is inappropriate and wrong, particularly because it was done to pre-emptively comply with Trump's Executive Order, even while there was a hold on this order being enforced.
Trans people and other LGBTQ+ people are among the highest, if not the highest, risk of being sexual assault victims. I am a licensed therapist, who is also a transgender woman, who works largely with transgender clients. Other organizations have stood up in this regard, but you have not only failed to stand up, you have laid down before it was even technically required. I am sure somebody in some board meeting decided it was for the 'greater good', that you need to preserve your funding source so that you can keep helping all of the other non-trans people. I suppose someone decided you would try to help trans people still, while somehow trying to ignore that they are trans on any documents.
Once you throw one group's rights out, it is only a matter of time before they come for the rest. Your funding is not safe under this current leadership, no matter what they tell you. Capitulating only emboldens them. You are going to be forced to take a final stance whether you like it or not, and throwing trans people under the bus by being complicit in erasing their existence from all written documents, shows me that I cannot support you and I am connected to protest groups who also will be made aware.
I am calling on your organization to change this stance right away. Do not be complicit in the erasure and persecution of transgender people.
Thank you!! Came to the comments for leads on how to reach out. As someone who has worked in advocacy and counseling roles related to sexual violence, I am disappointed and enraged that RAINN would preemptively comply with these asinine orders.
As a long-time supporter of RAINN in my work as a sexual violence advocate/therapist, I was extremely disappointed and angry when I learned that RAINN has preemptively has erased LGBTQIA+ individuals and, in particular, transgender people, from your website. RAINN has been a go-to for years as I serve vulnerable survivors, and I am heartbroken that I can no longer, in good conscience, recommend your organization as one who has preemptively and proactively chosen to erase some of our most marginalized citizens from existence. As you are well aware, it is estimated that the queer community experiences sexual violence at higher rates than the general population, and that according to a UCLA study in 2021, transgender people are FOUR times as likely to experience rape or sexual assault as cisgender people. I implore you to live out your mission to support ALL survivors and stand with us on the right side of history. This is an integral time for us to show support for those who need it most. Please do not erase on entire group of people as a result of political pressure that is rooted in hatred and misinformation. Please be the organization you claim to be, and the organization we have looked to for expert guidance since its inception. Thank you.”
The National Library of Medicine reported in 2024 that transgender and gender-diverse individuals, especially transgender men, are significantly more likely to face physical, sexual, and intimate partner violence in the past year relative to cisgender respondents: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11200137/
Considering this information, and the escalating violence facing our transgender and queer neighbors from our own government, access to the resources your organization provides is VITAL for the LGBTQ+ community. Organizations like yours should be providing MORE information for these communities, not taking it away.
I hope you will reverse the harmful actions you have begun to ensure we are protecting our most vulnerable citizens.
Victim Rights Law Center has a character limit on their form, here is the short version I sent:
I am disappointed to learn that access to some resources for trans and queer individuals is now no longer available on your site.
According to a UCLA study in 2021, transgender people are 4x as likely to experience sexual assault as cisgender people are. The National Library of Medicine reported in 2024 that transgender and gender-diverse individuals, especially transgender men, are significantly more likely to face physical, sexual, and intimate partner violence in the past year relative to cisgender respondents. I hope these removals are in error and and this action will be reversed ASAP.
In full fairness, on its homepage, VRLC has a statement reading, in full,
"Thank you to those who are visiting our website to look for available LGBTQ resources. We share your commitment. Our entire resource library remains available, including many of the resources that have been identified as removed. Click here for direct links, though they can also be found in our Resource Library by searching 'LGBTQ.' We continue to be available to serve all survivors in Massachusetts."
The four links on the linked page in that statement are all live; a search on "LGBTQ" (under "populations") on the Resource Page added five more, all live. They are the same nine that Mira listed as unavailable.
I don't know if in fact there had been others that are no longer available.; the statement does refer to "many" resources, not "all."
As a side note, the site also says the Oregon office is closing. I can find nothing in the site or online as to why.
Short and simple, sent to RAINN's feedback page and also their email address development@rainn.org, which is the account I've received donation acknowledgements from in the past.
Subj: RAINN no longer "stands with LGBTQ survivors"
"Today I was made aware of the removal of the following articles (among others) from your website.
- RAINN Stands with LGBTQ Survivors
- Answering the Call for Every Survivor
- Sexual Violence Researcher Talks About Supporting Loved Ones
"As a past donor and as a nonbinary DV survivor, I am disappointed and hurt by this withdrawal of public support for trans and other queer survivors.
"As you well know, we experience abuse and assault at increased rates. I recognize that this is an act of fear, but it will not save RAINN from losing federal funding - the administration in power does not believe in protecting victims or our rights regardless of our genders or orientations.
"All you have done is legitimized their hatred and proven that queer survivors are exactly as alone and unsupported as we so often feel. We are already experiencing an upswell in violence against us. Thanks for contributing to it."
Update: Received this very disappointing response:
Dear J,
I want to thank you for reaching out regarding this issue. It shows that you join us in our mission to support all sexual survivors and that you understand how important our support and critical services are. It takes a very special person to be an ally in our mission so thank you foremost.
I received your email with your concern regarding RAINN’s support for transgender survivors and wanted to assure you that we have and will continue to help all survivors of sexual assault.
Like many other federal grantees and contractors, we have made a number of changes to our website in order to comply with the Executive Order that makes it clear that federally supported programs must remove language relating to transgender.
Removing language on our website has not changed our services or mission. RAINN supports all survivors of sexual assault. All of our services remain available to every survivor. RAINN is here for everybody.
If you would like to discuss this issue, please reach back out to development@rainn.org. Thank you again for your care and support.
I sent my response via the "Is there something RAINN should work on" page. This was it:
-
I notice that you say you are focused on "federal legislation and policy proposals," without recognizing that Executive Orders are neither. They can guide administration policy as to how it will interpret law, but beyond that they have no enforceable power beyond that specified in relevant law.
So it is deeply disturbing to see RAINN react to an EO demanding public erasure of transgender people by preemptive capitulation, surrendering in the face of an extra-legal threat, giving up before the battle has actually begun.
I will not be mollified by bland reassurances that nothing has really changed and the support is still there (even if you can't see it and so don't know it is) - because what in heaven's name makes you think or rather imagine that the target is links on a website rather than the actual support? What makes you think that giving in here will not lead to more extensive, intenser, demands, especially since you have now shown you can be so easily bullied?
So don't "reassure" me. Tell me flat out: What is the line you WILL NOT CROSS, the demand you will not look to convince yourself (and others) that nothing has changed as you concede yet again? And why should I believe you?
-
I almost hope I get the same response as you did, in which case I intend to call them out for the opening deliberate attempt at manipulation ("You are such a wonderful person, y'know that?"), the obviously boilerplate PR nature of the whole thing, and the actual by-definition gaslighting (attempting to make you wrongly doubt your own perceptions) entailed.
Just wrote to RAINN to cancel all donations and ask to be removed from any donation requests because of this. Shame on them for siding with rapists over the vulnerable
I don’t know whether to cry or throw up. People will die because of this. I never thought I’d ever witness the infancy of a genocide, in my own country, no less.
I’m very sensitive to Nazi-like behavior all over the world. My FATHER (for most people it’s their grand or great grandparents who tell the horror story) was a Holocaust survivor. This is how it starts. Whether out of fear, agreement, desperation, or “my best friend convinced me”, allies drop one by one. Important trusted allies. Then restrictions, property confiscations, arrests, relocations, and finally murder.
It may slow things down to set up a fund to replace government subsidies with private cash, but eventually hate finds a way. I’d protect and support trans people and communities (especially women) as the topmost priority in my life, even though I have no “skin” in the game. Not me, not any friends or family, but a lot of emotion and the need to do the right thing. Why doesn’t everyone feel this way?
Erasure by government order of a class of persons or group of persons with intrinsic attributes is a severe form of persecution.
"Persecution" is Step 8 of the Ten Steps to Genocide, published by the nonprofit human rights organization Genocide Watch. Step 9 is "Extermination", the actual extermination of Trans people, in this example, criminalizing and banning Trans identities and Trans bodies. This extermination is happening RIGHT NOW and will result in the complete elimination of transgender Americans public, by forcing us to detransition and re-closet, or be incarcerated and forcibly detransitioned and tortured, killed, driven to suicide, or emigrating to a safe country.
Step 10 is "Denial", when the state denied having eliminated a class of persons and claims they don't know what happened but it "wasn't that".
Of course the MAGAs will not confess that perpetrated genocide and will deny it all day long.
But we ARE being killed and driven to exile. It's happening RIGHT NOW.
I've worked in the IPV and sexual violence space and I know how reliant those folks are on federal funding. This is coming from a place of fear; I understand that.
HE WILL TAKE YOUR FEDERAL FUNDING ANYWAY. THE PREDATORS IN CHARGE OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT RIGHT NOW DO NOT BELIEVE IN PROTECTING VICTIMS.
All you will have accomplished with this move is carving away your basic values, reducing the size of your coalition, and refusing to stand in solidarity with others when you are going to need them to stand in solidarity with you.
So much for those “helping” organizations… Erin, thanks for your note of hope, that these caving—or worse, happy to comply—orgs are also responsive to pushback from the public they claim to serve. This makes it SO crucial that we add our public comments to regulation changes (like to passport requirements! Right now, please!!) and oppose all this disgusting “compliance” to make it clear that this horrific administration is NOT changing America to their blueprint. U.S. voters need to see that this administration is not all-powerful, and magat oppression is not “just the way things are going to be now.”
I want to comment, but I don't trust the MAGAs currently running the DoS website. As a Trans person with amended documents such as birth certificate, SSA account, ID, and passport, I'm very afraid of investigation and revocation. I do not feel I can afford to make myself visible to them in this way.
I am not a queer citizen of a representative democracy with affirmed basic human rights, respected across the nation, guaranteed equal recognition and protection under the law.
I'm the queer citizen of a post democracy authoritarian regime that has decoupled the holding of political power from the electoral process. I am the citizen of a nation which no longer permits equal recognition and protection under due process for non-whites, non-Christians, women, or LGBTQ, and has avowed to exterminate transgender and gender expansive people by year's end. I'm the citizen of a country whose authorities think vaccines, no fault divorce, and the UN are monstrosities to be destroyed.
Generally speaking, I think with the DOGE boys scooping up government data, they have easier ways to identify us than back tracing a browser session from posting an anonymous comment.
But, a precaution that could be taken is to login connect to a VPN server before accessing the comment pages. There are lots of free VPN servers.
WHEN are the people of this nation going to get up and shout, "ENOUGH!" It seems to me unless you are rich enough, "Jesus Crispy" enough, or white enough, you do not qualify as "Human Enough!" Something needs to be done about the Pumpkinheaded Madman in the Oval Office! IF the government does not have the balls to do this, to help protect our own... We need to stand up and do it ourselves.
I wanted to let folks know I attended the Iowa house subcommittee voted to remove civil rights and birth certicates must reflect birth assigned at birth and can’t be changed . The senate is voting on it today and they plan to pass it Thursday afternoon to have Governor Kim Reynolds sign it who will . Anyone here with an Iowa birth certificate or from Iowa
I've started a one-woman campaign. to let the world know what The Boys and Girls Club is doing. I've started using this comment on every ally's post I find. Flooding Instagram with truth. Here's the post is you want to do the same. "At a time when organizations like @theboysandgirlsclub are giving into pressure from bigots and turning their backs on trans kids in need, people like you are standing up for trans kids!"
TF?!?!?! RAINN?!?!?! I am a member of their Speaker’s Bureau and have volunteered to tell my story at different events. I am soooooo disappointed in this. I am in utter shock. They are about to get an earful from me!
Thanks to Liz for finding the RAINN contact form. I didn't see it, so I sent the following message to media@rainn.org.
<<RAINN's erasure of transgender people on the website, as well as the minimization of any references to LGB+ people on the site, is a despicable act of cowardice. RAINN is committing LGBTQIA+ erasure which, historically, leads to violence and genocide. It's a painful irony that a trusted anti-violence organization is prepping the ground for fascist violence.
We need RAINN to show some bravery on behalf of vulnerable people who need you. Complying in advance with fascist dictates is a surrender to those who do evil and gives them confidence to do even more.
Shame on RAINN. To protect the rural LGBTQIA+ community I organize, I will be removing RAINN and any allied organizations from our forthcoming list of trusted resources. We cannot trust you.>>
I'm getting so fucking sick of this!!! (as are we all, I'm sure).
Here is a list of the contact forms and contact emails for each organization listed in Erin's article. Let's tell these fucking cowards were still here and let them know what we think.
We need to start protesting these non profits. This is absolutely ridiculous and evil.
🤬😡😡😡
NCMEC And RAINN especially.
NCMEC ; Do you think all exploited children are never transgender. That it plays no part in their exploitation. What A Crock. You effectively tying your hands with this.
RAINN; do you think only cisgender people get raped. This is insane.
On a brighter note, bucking this trend, the Girl Scouts continues to be awesome and support trans youth.
https://www.girlscouts.org/en/footer/faq/social-issues-faq.html
Go buy some cookies y'all!
https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/2025-trans-girl-scouts-to-order-cookies
Yay, Girl Scouts, boo ultra processed Girl Scout cookies!
OMG, not RAINN too… as a trans survivor that one hurts a lot 😢
Hi all RAINN has a site where you can offer feedback on their policies - https://rainn.org/policy-feedback
This is the script I am submitting to RAINN through this site, as well as emailing whatever contacts are listed on the page. I will also post similar things for the other orgs mentioned in this article:
Hello,
I am writing because I am extremely disappointed to learn that RAINN has eliminated references to trans individuals from its website.
According to a UCLA study in 2021, transgender people are four times as likely to experience rape or sexual assault as cisgender people are. In 2019, the National Sexual Violence Resource Center compiled a staggering amount of information regarding sexual violence against trans and nonbinary people, and the numbers are terrifying. The National Library of Medicine reported in 2023 that half of the trans population will experience sexual violence in their lifetime. I don't have to tell you that this research is the tip of the iceberg.
In time when our government is escalating violence against this vulnerable population, your erasure of these same people is extremely loud and wildly against your purported mission to "prevent sexual violence, help survivors, and ensure that perpetrators are brought to justice." Your decision to comply with an executive order that is NOT law, and is FAR from enforceable, is extremely damning.
Do what is right, and stand up for your trans and nonbinary victims. Where else can they turn to, if not to RAINN??
Here is my script for boys and girls club (it's more personal, as I have worked with a local one, but easily adapted). Sent thru their general contact form, as well as emailed to their advocacy@... and their director of public relations. (elynch@...)
I'm a librarian in Rhode Island, who works just up the road from my local Boys and Girls Club. When I ran the teen room at the library, I was very happy to collaborate with our B&G, sharing resources to area teens. At the time, I ran a very active Teen GSA, which continues today as our teen Pride Club. I got to know the town's area trans and nonbinary kids, and see first-hand how important it was for them to have local spaces to just be themselves without fear.
While I appreciate that the Boys & Girls Club website still includes information for the general "LGBTQ+" population, I was disappointed to learn that specific references to how B&G stands up for the transgender community have been removed from your website. Despite the Trump administration's executive orders against trans kids, nothing has been written into law, and, in fact, multiple judges have blocked the Trump administration's attempts to discriminate against trans youth. Therefore, B&G has no reason to comply with these orders, which are not enforceable.
But B&G clubs have every reason to stand up for trans youth, and to do so plainly. I hope you reinstate the information you have removed, especially pivotal stories like "Growing Up Kate," which makes it clear that trans and nonbinary youth have a place at Boys and Girls Clubs. You partner with The Trevor Project, an organization that has reported a frightening increase of suicide attempts by trans youth in response to anti-trans laws: a devastating 72%. Organizations like the Boys and Girls Club need to do everything they can to make it clear that no matter what a discriminatory government says, trans youth are celebrated and loved.
I hope you will reconsider your recent actions.
Link to Boys and Girls Club contact form
https://www.bgca.org/about-us/contact-us/
Here's what I sent to RAINN:
I just learned this: "Independent journalist Mady Castigan first reported that the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) quietly removed all mentions of LGBTQ+ individuals from its website."
This is inappropriate and wrong, particularly because it was done to pre-emptively comply with Trump's Executive Order, even while there was a hold on this order being enforced.
Trans people and other LGBTQ+ people are among the highest, if not the highest, risk of being sexual assault victims. I am a licensed therapist, who is also a transgender woman, who works largely with transgender clients. Other organizations have stood up in this regard, but you have not only failed to stand up, you have laid down before it was even technically required. I am sure somebody in some board meeting decided it was for the 'greater good', that you need to preserve your funding source so that you can keep helping all of the other non-trans people. I suppose someone decided you would try to help trans people still, while somehow trying to ignore that they are trans on any documents.
Once you throw one group's rights out, it is only a matter of time before they come for the rest. Your funding is not safe under this current leadership, no matter what they tell you. Capitulating only emboldens them. You are going to be forced to take a final stance whether you like it or not, and throwing trans people under the bus by being complicit in erasing their existence from all written documents, shows me that I cannot support you and I am connected to protest groups who also will be made aware.
I am calling on your organization to change this stance right away. Do not be complicit in the erasure and persecution of transgender people.
I send something to them as well!
Thank you!! Came to the comments for leads on how to reach out. As someone who has worked in advocacy and counseling roles related to sexual violence, I am disappointed and enraged that RAINN would preemptively comply with these asinine orders.
Here's what I sent:
Hello,
As a long-time supporter of RAINN in my work as a sexual violence advocate/therapist, I was extremely disappointed and angry when I learned that RAINN has preemptively has erased LGBTQIA+ individuals and, in particular, transgender people, from your website. RAINN has been a go-to for years as I serve vulnerable survivors, and I am heartbroken that I can no longer, in good conscience, recommend your organization as one who has preemptively and proactively chosen to erase some of our most marginalized citizens from existence. As you are well aware, it is estimated that the queer community experiences sexual violence at higher rates than the general population, and that according to a UCLA study in 2021, transgender people are FOUR times as likely to experience rape or sexual assault as cisgender people. I implore you to live out your mission to support ALL survivors and stand with us on the right side of history. This is an integral time for us to show support for those who need it most. Please do not erase on entire group of people as a result of political pressure that is rooted in hatred and misinformation. Please be the organization you claim to be, and the organization we have looked to for expert guidance since its inception. Thank you.”
Thanks for the link. I just sent them a strongly worded comment.
Script for Futures Without Violence and links to their contact form:
Hello,
I am disappointed to learn that you have pulled your LGBTQ+ and transgender resources from your web store.
In September 2024, the Human Rights Campaign reported that Anti-LGBTQ hate crimes continue to spike despite overall crime lowering:
https://www.hrc.org/press-releases/new-fbi-data-anti-lgbtq-hate-crimes-continue-to-spike-even-as-overall-crime-rate-declines
According to a UCLA study in 2021, transgender people are four times as likely to experience rape or sexual assault as cisgender people are:
https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/press/ncvs-trans-press-release/
The National Library of Medicine reported in 2024 that transgender and gender-diverse individuals, especially transgender men, are significantly more likely to face physical, sexual, and intimate partner violence in the past year relative to cisgender respondents: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11200137/
Considering this information, and the escalating violence facing our transgender and queer neighbors from our own government, access to the resources your organization provides is VITAL for the LGBTQ+ community. Organizations like yours should be providing MORE information for these communities, not taking it away.
I hope you will reverse the harmful actions you have begun to ensure we are protecting our most vulnerable citizens.
https://store.futureswithoutviolence.org/contact-us/
emails: info@futureswithoutviolence.org, health@futureswithoutviolence.org
Here is a summary of the contact forms, email address for all organizations listed in Erin's article -
RAINN
https://rainn.org/policy-feedback
Boys and Girls Club
https://www.bgca.org/about-us/contact-us/
EmaiL: advocacy@...
Email: their director of public relations - elynch@...
Future Without Violence
https://futureswithoutviolence.org/about-us/contact-us/
EmaiL: info@...
Victims Rights Law Center
https://victimrights.org/contact/
Thanks so much for this! This is what we all need to do! Flood them with our responses! Thanks for the script!
Victim Rights Law Center has a character limit on their form, here is the short version I sent:
I am disappointed to learn that access to some resources for trans and queer individuals is now no longer available on your site.
According to a UCLA study in 2021, transgender people are 4x as likely to experience sexual assault as cisgender people are. The National Library of Medicine reported in 2024 that transgender and gender-diverse individuals, especially transgender men, are significantly more likely to face physical, sexual, and intimate partner violence in the past year relative to cisgender respondents. I hope these removals are in error and and this action will be reversed ASAP.
https://victimrights.org/contact/?
In full fairness, on its homepage, VRLC has a statement reading, in full,
"Thank you to those who are visiting our website to look for available LGBTQ resources. We share your commitment. Our entire resource library remains available, including many of the resources that have been identified as removed. Click here for direct links, though they can also be found in our Resource Library by searching 'LGBTQ.' We continue to be available to serve all survivors in Massachusetts."
The four links on the linked page in that statement are all live; a search on "LGBTQ" (under "populations") on the Resource Page added five more, all live. They are the same nine that Mira listed as unavailable.
I don't know if in fact there had been others that are no longer available.; the statement does refer to "many" resources, not "all."
As a side note, the site also says the Oregon office is closing. I can find nothing in the site or online as to why.
Short and simple, sent to RAINN's feedback page and also their email address development@rainn.org, which is the account I've received donation acknowledgements from in the past.
Subj: RAINN no longer "stands with LGBTQ survivors"
"Today I was made aware of the removal of the following articles (among others) from your website.
- RAINN Stands with LGBTQ Survivors
- Answering the Call for Every Survivor
- Sexual Violence Researcher Talks About Supporting Loved Ones
"As a past donor and as a nonbinary DV survivor, I am disappointed and hurt by this withdrawal of public support for trans and other queer survivors.
"As you well know, we experience abuse and assault at increased rates. I recognize that this is an act of fear, but it will not save RAINN from losing federal funding - the administration in power does not believe in protecting victims or our rights regardless of our genders or orientations.
"All you have done is legitimized their hatred and proven that queer survivors are exactly as alone and unsupported as we so often feel. We are already experiencing an upswell in violence against us. Thanks for contributing to it."
Update: Received this very disappointing response:
Dear J,
I want to thank you for reaching out regarding this issue. It shows that you join us in our mission to support all sexual survivors and that you understand how important our support and critical services are. It takes a very special person to be an ally in our mission so thank you foremost.
I received your email with your concern regarding RAINN’s support for transgender survivors and wanted to assure you that we have and will continue to help all survivors of sexual assault.
Like many other federal grantees and contractors, we have made a number of changes to our website in order to comply with the Executive Order that makes it clear that federally supported programs must remove language relating to transgender.
Removing language on our website has not changed our services or mission. RAINN supports all survivors of sexual assault. All of our services remain available to every survivor. RAINN is here for everybody.
If you would like to discuss this issue, please reach back out to development@rainn.org. Thank you again for your care and support.
Best,
RAINN Development
I sent my response via the "Is there something RAINN should work on" page. This was it:
-
I notice that you say you are focused on "federal legislation and policy proposals," without recognizing that Executive Orders are neither. They can guide administration policy as to how it will interpret law, but beyond that they have no enforceable power beyond that specified in relevant law.
So it is deeply disturbing to see RAINN react to an EO demanding public erasure of transgender people by preemptive capitulation, surrendering in the face of an extra-legal threat, giving up before the battle has actually begun.
I will not be mollified by bland reassurances that nothing has really changed and the support is still there (even if you can't see it and so don't know it is) - because what in heaven's name makes you think or rather imagine that the target is links on a website rather than the actual support? What makes you think that giving in here will not lead to more extensive, intenser, demands, especially since you have now shown you can be so easily bullied?
So don't "reassure" me. Tell me flat out: What is the line you WILL NOT CROSS, the demand you will not look to convince yourself (and others) that nothing has changed as you concede yet again? And why should I believe you?
-
I almost hope I get the same response as you did, in which case I intend to call them out for the opening deliberate attempt at manipulation ("You are such a wonderful person, y'know that?"), the obviously boilerplate PR nature of the whole thing, and the actual by-definition gaslighting (attempting to make you wrongly doubt your own perceptions) entailed.
Just wrote to RAINN to cancel all donations and ask to be removed from any donation requests because of this. Shame on them for siding with rapists over the vulnerable
I don’t know whether to cry or throw up. People will die because of this. I never thought I’d ever witness the infancy of a genocide, in my own country, no less.
I’m very sensitive to Nazi-like behavior all over the world. My FATHER (for most people it’s their grand or great grandparents who tell the horror story) was a Holocaust survivor. This is how it starts. Whether out of fear, agreement, desperation, or “my best friend convinced me”, allies drop one by one. Important trusted allies. Then restrictions, property confiscations, arrests, relocations, and finally murder.
It may slow things down to set up a fund to replace government subsidies with private cash, but eventually hate finds a way. I’d protect and support trans people and communities (especially women) as the topmost priority in my life, even though I have no “skin” in the game. Not me, not any friends or family, but a lot of emotion and the need to do the right thing. Why doesn’t everyone feel this way?
Thank you for your compassion and support!
Erasure by government order of a class of persons or group of persons with intrinsic attributes is a severe form of persecution.
"Persecution" is Step 8 of the Ten Steps to Genocide, published by the nonprofit human rights organization Genocide Watch. Step 9 is "Extermination", the actual extermination of Trans people, in this example, criminalizing and banning Trans identities and Trans bodies. This extermination is happening RIGHT NOW and will result in the complete elimination of transgender Americans public, by forcing us to detransition and re-closet, or be incarcerated and forcibly detransitioned and tortured, killed, driven to suicide, or emigrating to a safe country.
Step 10 is "Denial", when the state denied having eliminated a class of persons and claims they don't know what happened but it "wasn't that".
Of course the MAGAs will not confess that perpetrated genocide and will deny it all day long.
But we ARE being killed and driven to exile. It's happening RIGHT NOW.
I've worked in the IPV and sexual violence space and I know how reliant those folks are on federal funding. This is coming from a place of fear; I understand that.
HE WILL TAKE YOUR FEDERAL FUNDING ANYWAY. THE PREDATORS IN CHARGE OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT RIGHT NOW DO NOT BELIEVE IN PROTECTING VICTIMS.
All you will have accomplished with this move is carving away your basic values, reducing the size of your coalition, and refusing to stand in solidarity with others when you are going to need them to stand in solidarity with you.
So much for those “helping” organizations… Erin, thanks for your note of hope, that these caving—or worse, happy to comply—orgs are also responsive to pushback from the public they claim to serve. This makes it SO crucial that we add our public comments to regulation changes (like to passport requirements! Right now, please!!) and oppose all this disgusting “compliance” to make it clear that this horrific administration is NOT changing America to their blueprint. U.S. voters need to see that this administration is not all-powerful, and magat oppression is not “just the way things are going to be now.”
Here are the links to the three comment pages relating to proposed passport rules changes. A comment can be posted anonymously.
https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRA/icrPublicCommentRequest?ref_nbr=202502-1405-002
https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRA/icrPublicCommentRequest?ref_nbr=202502-1405-003
https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRA/icrPublicCommentRequest?ref_nbr=202502-1405-001
I want to comment, but I don't trust the MAGAs currently running the DoS website. As a Trans person with amended documents such as birth certificate, SSA account, ID, and passport, I'm very afraid of investigation and revocation. I do not feel I can afford to make myself visible to them in this way.
I am not a queer citizen of a representative democracy with affirmed basic human rights, respected across the nation, guaranteed equal recognition and protection under the law.
I'm the queer citizen of a post democracy authoritarian regime that has decoupled the holding of political power from the electoral process. I am the citizen of a nation which no longer permits equal recognition and protection under due process for non-whites, non-Christians, women, or LGBTQ, and has avowed to exterminate transgender and gender expansive people by year's end. I'm the citizen of a country whose authorities think vaccines, no fault divorce, and the UN are monstrosities to be destroyed.
I'm not the citizen of a decent country.
I'm an American.
Generally speaking, I think with the DOGE boys scooping up government data, they have easier ways to identify us than back tracing a browser session from posting an anonymous comment.
But, a precaution that could be taken is to login connect to a VPN server before accessing the comment pages. There are lots of free VPN servers.
Sometimes our best resistance is our existence.
WHEN are the people of this nation going to get up and shout, "ENOUGH!" It seems to me unless you are rich enough, "Jesus Crispy" enough, or white enough, you do not qualify as "Human Enough!" Something needs to be done about the Pumpkinheaded Madman in the Oval Office! IF the government does not have the balls to do this, to help protect our own... We need to stand up and do it ourselves.
I wanted to let folks know I attended the Iowa house subcommittee voted to remove civil rights and birth certicates must reflect birth assigned at birth and can’t be changed . The senate is voting on it today and they plan to pass it Thursday afternoon to have Governor Kim Reynolds sign it who will . Anyone here with an Iowa birth certificate or from Iowa
No, but Wisconsin has been similar, no surgery, no gender marker change. And when it is updated, all the dead info is front and center....
Did they change the laws in Wisconsin too?
I've started a one-woman campaign. to let the world know what The Boys and Girls Club is doing. I've started using this comment on every ally's post I find. Flooding Instagram with truth. Here's the post is you want to do the same. "At a time when organizations like @theboysandgirlsclub are giving into pressure from bigots and turning their backs on trans kids in need, people like you are standing up for trans kids!"
TF?!?!?! RAINN?!?!?! I am a member of their Speaker’s Bureau and have volunteered to tell my story at different events. I am soooooo disappointed in this. I am in utter shock. They are about to get an earful from me!
Thanks to Liz for finding the RAINN contact form. I didn't see it, so I sent the following message to media@rainn.org.
<<RAINN's erasure of transgender people on the website, as well as the minimization of any references to LGB+ people on the site, is a despicable act of cowardice. RAINN is committing LGBTQIA+ erasure which, historically, leads to violence and genocide. It's a painful irony that a trusted anti-violence organization is prepping the ground for fascist violence.
We need RAINN to show some bravery on behalf of vulnerable people who need you. Complying in advance with fascist dictates is a surrender to those who do evil and gives them confidence to do even more.
Shame on RAINN. To protect the rural LGBTQIA+ community I organize, I will be removing RAINN and any allied organizations from our forthcoming list of trusted resources. We cannot trust you.>>
I'm getting so fucking sick of this!!! (as are we all, I'm sure).
Here is a list of the contact forms and contact emails for each organization listed in Erin's article. Let's tell these fucking cowards were still here and let them know what we think.
RAINN
https://rainn.org/policy-feedback
Boys and Girls Club
https://www.bgca.org/about-us/contact-us/
EmaiL: advocacy@...
Email: their director of public relations - elynch@...
Future Without Violence
https://futureswithoutviolence.org/about-us/contact-us/
EmaiL: info@...
Victims Rights Law Center
https://victimrights.org/contact/
I messaged them and got a reply right back today. https://bsky.app/profile/gopneedstogo.bsky.social/post/3lizsstmfec2s