HUD Secretary Halts Enforcement Of Obama-Era Rule Allowing Men In Women’s Facilities

WASHINGTON — The new Secretary of Housing and Urban Development announced Thursday that he is halting enforcement of an Obama-era rule that would allow men who identify as women in spaces designated for women.

HUD published the 2016 Equal Access Rule to “ensure that all individuals have equal access to many of the Department’s core shelter programs in accordance with their gender identity.” This meant that a man who identified as a woman could access a HUD shelter program intended only for women.

Given that women’s shelters are often the only refuge for women fleeing domestic abuse or violence, advocates have warned for years that allowing men in these spaces presents a very real danger for the female occupants. For example, nine homeless women sued a Fresno, California women’s shelter in 2018, accusing the shelter of doing nothing when a man who identified as a woman used their showers and sexually harassed them.

Such things will no longer take place in HUD-funded shelters, HUD Secretary Scott Turner said Thursday.

“I am directing the HUD staff to halt any pending or future enforcement actions related to HUD’s 2016 Equal Access Rule, which in essence tied housing programs, shelters, and other facilities funded by HUD to quote, gender identity,” Turner said Thursday.

“And I want to be clear,” he added, “here at this agency, we are carrying out the mission laid out by President Trump on January 20th when he signed an executive order to restore biological truth to the federal government.  This means recognizing there are only two sexes, male and female.  It’s time to get rid of all the far-left gender ideology and get government out of the way of what the Lord established from the beginning when he created man in his own image, male and female.”

Turner emphasized that this move is the first of many examples of how HUD will be “going back to work for the American people and being good stewards of taxpayer dollars.”

Pressed for clarification by The Daily Wire, Turner promised that HUD will uphold the law and protect women in HUD facilities, explaining: “They’re there to seek safety.”

President Barack Obama and HUD Secretary Julian Castr0 (Photo by Andrew Harrer-Pool/Getty Images)

Trump’s January 20 executive action, titled, “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” specifically mentions the dangers that men in women’s spaces present. That order promises that Trump will defend women’s rights and protect freedom of conscience by using “clear and accurate language and policies that recognize women are biologically female, and men are biologically male.”

“Across the country,” the order read, “ideologues who deny the biological reality of sex have increasingly used legal and other socially coercive means to permit men to self-identify as women and gain access to intimate single-sex spaces and activities designed for women, from women’s domestic abuse shelters to women’s workplace showers.”

“This is wrong,” the order continues. “Efforts to eradicate the biological reality of sex fundamentally attack women by depriving them of their dignity, safety, and well-being.  The erasure of sex in language and policy has a corrosive impact not just on women but on the validity of the entire American system.  Basing Federal policy on truth is critical to scientific inquiry, public safety, morale, and trust in government itself.”

In a September 10, 2016 release, HUD celebrated its move to allow men in women’s spaces, noting that providers operating single-sex spaces using HUD funds must now provide all individuals access to “programs, benefits, services, and accommodations in accordance with their gender identity without being subjected to intrusive questioning or being asked to provide documentation.” HUD’s mission, the 2016 release said, is to “create inclusive communities and quality affordable housing for all.”

“Today, we take another important step to ensure full acceptance of transgender and gender non-conforming individuals in the programs HUD supports,” then-HUD Secretary Julián Castro said at the time. “This new rule will ensure equal access to the very programs that help to prevent homelessness for persons who are routinely forced to choose between being placed in facilities against their gender identity or living on our streets.”