The Government Is Shut Down. What It Means For The LGBTQ+ Appropriations Fight.

On Tuesday night at midnight, Democrats and Republicans failed to come to a deal to keep the government open.

Public Domain // Stephen Wright

Midnight came and went, and the government is now officially in shutdown. The collapse followed failed votes on “clean” continuing resolutions from both parties and the breakdown of negotiations over full-year funding bills for fiscal 2026. Those full-year funding bills contained dozens of anti-LGBTQ+ riders in their U.S. House versions—provisions that left transgender people worried Democrats would fold and acquiesce to Republican demands. The clean resolutions on the table, though containing no such provisions, would only have delayed that fight by weeks, not resolved it. Now, with negotiations in ruins and a shutdown underway, LGBTQ+ people are left facing the question that matters most: what comes next in a standoff that could drag on and decide the future of trans rights in America?

The genesis of this fight goes back to earlier this year, when Republicans in both chambers began unveiling their appropriations bills for fiscal 2026. From the very beginning, it was clear they were packed with poison pills that Democrats would struggle to support. The proposals ranged from deep cuts to education funding to the lapsing of pandemic Affordable Care Act subsidies, a move that would spike premiums for millions of Americans. But for queer and transgender people, the provisions went even further, embedding restrictions that would devastate healthcare and civil rights protections across the country.

The House appropriations bills for Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, for instance, included a sweeping ban on “any federal funds” supporting gender-affirming care. Interpreted broadly, that language could dismantle programs at hospitals nationwide and block Medicare and Medicaid from covering transgender healthcare altogether. Other spending bills piled on their own attacks. The Commerce, Justice, and Science bill, the Financial Services and General Government bill, and even the National Defense Authorization Act carried provisions ranging from Pride flag bans to bathroom bans on military bases to rules forcing transgender people into prisons aligned with their sex assigned at birth. Taken together, these bills amount to a wholesale rewrite of federal policy on LGBTQ+ rights—one that would instantly transform the legal and medical landscape for transgender people.

As the October 1 deadline drew closer, Democrats and Republicans remained deadlocked. The Senate’s appropriations bills were relatively clean—aside from the NDAA—while the House versions bristled with anti-trans riders. Attention soon shifted to a “continuing resolution,” a short-term fix that would keep the government open for a few weeks while negotiations continued over both the anti-trans provisions and other flashpoints. The “clean” continuing resolutions on the table carried no such riders, but they would only have delayed the inevitable clash over full-year funding. By late Tuesday night, even that stopgap failed. Negotiations collapsed as Democrats held firm on demands to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies and to curb Trump’s ability to rescind congressionally appropriated funds—powers he has already wielded to punish LGBTQ+ people this year.

So what does this mean for the anti-LGBTQ+ provisions?

Now that the government is officially shut down, the path forward is anything but clear. Punchbowl News reports that “the chances of a quick resolution on the impasse are low,” and the next few days will likely bring more failed attempts to pass a “clean” continuing resolution that simply buys more time. The ultimate goal of such a stopgap would be to bridge the gap between the House and the Senate, and between Democrats and Republicans, long enough to agree on a full-year spending bill. That final package would then be presented to both chambers for a vote. But given that lawmakers can’t even agree on the short-term measure to keep negotiations alive, the prospect of hammering out a deal that funds the government for the next year feels impossibly remote.

There is one promising sign for LGBTQ+ people in all this: Democrats, by refusing to cave to Republican demands on both the full-year appropriations bills and the continuing resolution, have shown a degree of backbone critics often accuse them of lacking. They held firm even under the threat of a shutdown, rejecting a continuing resolution deal that would have let Trump keep his rescission power and allowed some Affordable Care Act subsidies to lapse. That stance now forces Republicans to bargain with a Democratic Party that—for the moment, at least—believes it has leverage. When talks eventually turn back to funding the government for the full year, there’s hope that Republicans may steer clear of poison pills like the anti-LGBTQ+ riders that risk blowing up the process altogether.

On the flipside, a government shutdown will ratchet up pressure on both parties to strike a deal as the fallout spreads across American life. Hundreds of thousands of federal workers would be furloughed. Small Business Administration loans would stall. National parks could close, federal scientific research would grind to a halt, and programs like WIC and FHA housing loans would be disrupted. The longer the impasse drags on, the heavier the public pressure will grow for Congress to find a way out.

Still, there’s reason for concern that the pressure of a shutdown could push Democrats to cave on key constituencies—LGBTQ+ people chief among them. The memory of last year looms large. When Republicans laced the House version of the National Defense Authorization Act with anti-trans riders, Democrats in the Senate, having control of that chamber at the time, had the chance to strip them out. Instead, leadership folded: they refused to allow a vote to remove the provisions and passed the bill intact, cutting off TRICARE coverage for gender-affirming care for the children of servicemembers. For many trans advocates, it was a stinging betrayal. Now the fear is of a repeat—only worse. This year’s House NDAA goes even further, piling on a military bathroom ban, a sports ban, a coverage ban, and more, and the same fears hold true for negotiations over the bills funding the federal government for the next year.

Since 2023, the federal government has limped along on “minibus” packages and short-term continuing resolutions, but there’s no guarantee that approach will hold. It’s true that Congress hasn’t passed a full-year omnibus since fiscal 2023, yet during Trump’s first term, large-scale appropriations bills were the norm. That history suggests where this is headed: while the immediate fight is over keeping the government open with a relatively clean continuing resolution, Republicans are expected to demand a longer-term spending bill—and with it, a fresh push to embed their policy priorities, including the anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ+ riders.

Republicans—Trump chief among them—have made clear that anti-trans provisions are on the table for the full-year appropriations fight. In recent days, Trump used both a Truth Social post and a grotesquely offensive deepfake video of Chuck Schumer to hammer Democrats, accusing them of protecting transgender people in the shutdown fight and vowing to walk away from negotiations unless they conceded ground. On Capitol Hill, several Republican members echoed the line, blasting Democrats for supposedly backing “taxpayer-funded transgender surgeries” in the federal budget—a talking point pulled straight from the party’s broader anti-trans playbook.

At least one source told Erin In The Morning that congressional offices were inundated with calls from LGBTQ+ constituents on Tuesday demanding that their rights not be bargained away in the final FY26 appropriations deal. The stopgap continuing resolutions on the table may avoid those riders for now, but they only delay the real fight: how to fund the government for the next year. Lawmakers now know this much—constituents are watching closely, and any move to trade away LGBTQ+ rights in the name of compromise will come at a steep political cost.

You can continue to call your congressmembers here and demand that any negotiations over funding the government for the next year must not include anti-LGBTQ+ provisions pushed by Republicans in power.