Some government websites in the United States have temporarily gone offline, and data has been removed from others following a directive stemming from President Trump’s orders to roll back transgender protections. Federal agencies were instructed on Wednesday to remove information promoting “gender ideology” from websites, contracts, and emails by 5 a.m.
local time in Washington D.C. on Friday. The U.S. Census Bureau’s site went completely offline, as first reported by CBS News at 5 p.m.
Elsewhere, certain pages became inaccessible, such as those on the National Park Service website. The Department of State’s website underwent changes, including replacing the term ‘gender’ with ‘sex’.
Employees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention rushed to remove terms such as ‘transgender’, ‘immigrant’, ‘LGBT’, and ‘pregnant people’ from the website before the deadline, according to The New York Times. Hospital staff for veterans and their families were reportedly ordered to remove LGBT flags and similar displays.
When questioned by reporters about the closure of government websites to remove mentions of diversity, equality, and inclusion, Trump stated on Friday that he was unaware but said it “did not sound like a bad idea”. Politico had earlier reported that Agriculture Department staff were instructed to delete climate change pages from their websites.
White House staff confirmed to Reuters that many government websites have been temporarily “paused”, though the duration is unknown.
Source: NOS