The word “gender” might as well be banned, as .gov websites have been scrubbing all mention of the word (along with several others.) That’s not all: entire websites are disappearing following a memo sent out on January 29th to all departments and agencies of the federal government in what looks like an attempt to enforce the executive order entitled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government”.
The order itself is nothing short of a blatant attempt to erase basic protective rights for transgender people.
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Trans activists and organizers and waiting to hear what the next attack on their open existence will be.
As for the memo sent out by the U.S. Office of Personal Management, it orders many Federal Departments to purge all references to gender ideology in all public media, including their websites, by 5 P.M. Eastern time on January 31st. In a disappointing turn of events, it seems most if not all have chosen compliance.
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People are rightfully upset, and have been since Trump’s inauguration and initial signing of the order started archiving government webpages. The boons of this include entire data sets from the CDC after the website had removed pages on HIV testing and medication. We have evidence of the U.S. Department removing TQI+ from any references to LGBTQI+ and instead opting for LGB, a term that gives British people everywhere a bad name.
I could go on, but the important thing is the Internet Archive has given us a tool to fight ignorance and make sure important information isn’t lost and that misinformative propaganda doesn’t prevail. Many reputable journalists including Alejandra Caraballo and Erin Reed compare the data purge to book-burning gatherings employed by the German Students Union during Nazi-era Germany.
It cannot be understated how destructive of an ideology fascism is, especially since it’s often able to go mostly unnoticed until it’s entrenched and much harder to fight against. But fight we must: while it’s not an easy battle, it’s more rewarding than giving in to defeat.
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