On January 29, 2025, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management issued a memo to all department and agency heads directing them to remove webpages and documents that “promote gender ideology” in accordance with executive orders that recognize only two genders—male and female—and terminate DEI programs.
Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) and the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBS) were removed. In addition, the Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey (HPS) data and documentation were deleted, Census data became inaccessible, and datasets related to tracking HIV/AIDS in the U.S. and globally were no longer available. At the same time, questions about sexual orientation and gender identity have been removed from some federal surveys going forward.
Although a court order has temporarily required agencies to restore webpages and make their data available, a new report by the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law examines the significance of LGBT federal data collection and the potential consequences of its removal on LGBT research, law, and policy.
“Federal datasets that include questions about sexual orientation and gender identity have provided invaluable information to researchers, clinicians, policymakers, and the public,” said lead author Ilan Meyer, Distinguished Senior Scholar of Public Policy at the Williams Institute. “The removal of such data from the public record and the loss of future data would set the United States decades backward to a time when little was known about the current demography, health, and well-being of the 14 million LGBT people in the United States.”
History
Including questions about sexual orientation and gender identity in federal surveys has been a long process of deliberation and planning that required methodological assessments, testing, and consideration of political contexts. Surveys that have collected sexual orientation and gender identity data for years include
- The CDC’s National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), and Youth Risk Behavioral Survey (YRBS)
- The Bureau of Justice Statistics’ National Inmate Survey (NIS) and National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)
- The Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey (HPS), among others.
Other surveys, including the American Community Survey (ACS), were considering collecting sexual orientation and gender identity data before President Trump took office in 2025.
Importance of LGBT federal data collection
Federal datasets are unique and invaluable because of the vast aspects of life they cover. They provide a large number of respondents, allowing for the analysis of subpopulations based on sexual orientation and gender identity. For example, the BRFSS is the largest continuously conducted health survey in the world, with 400,000 participants. Considering the relatively small proportion of LGBT individuals in the general population, a significant number of survey participants is necessary to obtain a sufficient LGBT sample for accurate statistical estimates of the population.
These datasets are also distinguished by their scientific rigor and longevity, facilitating the tracking of changes over time. It is unlikely that such extensive surveys could be executed without governmental funding.