On June 29, 2026, the National Women’s Law Center led a coalition of gender justice and civil rights organizations in submitting a comment to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) opposing rollbacks of sexual orientation and gender identity protections throughout HUD programs. HUD’s proposal would leave LGBTQIA+ people more vulnerable to systemic disparities impacting access to safe shelter and affordable housing.

Alarmingly, HUD’s proposal also would require housing providers—including emergency shelters—to exclude transgender people from sex-separated housing options consistent with their gender identity. These proposed conditions—rooted in inaccurate and deeply harmful mischaracterizations—ignore a decade of data and lived experience under the Equal Access Rule, as providers have worked to mitigate discriminatory exclusion from shelters. HUD’s proposal would even allow housing providers to demand proof of a person’s sex, opening the door to highly intrusive sex-screening procedures that will impact all women—trans and cisgender alike.

NWLC was joined in this comment by the California Women’s Law Center, Coalition on Human Needs, Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), Girls for Gender Equity, Idaho Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence, International Action Network for Gender Equity and Law (IANGEL), Japanese American Citizens League, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), National Association of Social Workers, National Association of Women Lawyers, National Council of Jewish Women, National Network to End Domestic Violence, National Urban League, North Carolina Justice Center, Nurses for Sexual and Reproductive Health, Red Wine & Blue, SisterReach Inc., SisterReach Illinois, Standpoint, Union for Reform Judaism, URGE: Unite for Reproductive & Gender Equity, Violence Free Minnesota, Women of Reform Judaism, and WV Free.

Read the full comment here.