Trump Bans Over 290 Words, Including “Black,” “Women,” And “Trans”
The Trump Administration has banned 294 words, including “LGBTQ+” and “women,” from government websites and school curricula.
In one of the Trump administration’s latest pushes to dismantle the so-called “woke” agenda, the president has identified just under 300 terms he wants government agencies to avoid. In a series of memos over the last six weeks, the administration has advised various agencies to halt their use of these many terms, the bulk of them related to race, gender, and the LGBTQ+ community.
According to a New York Times investigation, some of these words were banned outright when the president ordered them removed from public-facing government websites or eliminated from materials like school curricula. The Times has not been able to confirm whether the administration has banned any additional words.
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Some of the terms on Trump’s extensive list, like “racial justice,” “activism,” “transgender,” “non-binary,” “they/them,” and “LGBTQ+,” are in line with his administration’s ongoing anti-trans agenda and efforts to wipe out DEI initiatives. Others, like “belong,” “expression,” “victim,” and “women” seem harder to pin down, and even harder to enforce.
Regardless, over 250 government websites have already started to delete the terms from this list. Meanwhile, other words were soft-banned when the administration advised government agencies to exercise “caution” when using them. In one of the most jarring examples, the National Parks Service edited its page on the Stonewall National Monument to remove references to the trans community, replacing the banned term “LGBTQ+” with the non-banned “LGB.”
Related: NPS Continues To Try Erasing Transgender People From History
Trump’s labyrinthine list of banned words seems to represent his administration’s key strategy: erase unfavorable topics altogether. The president has already made similar efforts to eradicate ideas he disagrees with, like when he formally denied the existence of trans people with an executive order on Day 1 of his presidency, or when he “renamed” the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America,” despite a general lack of authority to do so (Trump also banned the use of “Gulf of Mexico” from government documents). But at a whopping 294 words and counting, the extensiveness of the Times list indicates his plan of attack—on LGBTQ+ people, women, people of color, the climate, and many more—is far from over.
Below is the full list of words banned by the Trump administration, according to the Times:
- accessible
- activism
- activists
- advocacy
- advocate
- advocates
- affirming care
- all-inclusive
- allyship
- anti-racism
- antiracist
- assigned at birth
- assigned female at birth
- assigned male at birth
- at risk
- barrier
- barriers
- belong
- bias
- biased
- biased toward
- biases
- biases towards
- biologically female
- biologically male
- BIPOC
- Black
- breastfeed + people
- breastfeed + person
- chestfeed + people
- chestfeed + person
- clean energy
- climate crisis
- climate science
- commercial sex worker
- community diversity
- community equity
- confirmation bias
- cultural competence
- cultural differences
- cultural heritage
- cultural sensitivity
- culturally appropriate
- culturally responsive
- DEI
- DEIA
- DEIAB
- DEIJ
- disabilities
- disability
- discriminated
- discrimination
- discriminatory
- disparity
- diverse
- diverse backgrounds
- diverse communities
- diverse community
- diverse group
- diverse groups
- diversified
- diversify
- diversifying
- diversity
- enhance the diversity
- enhancing diversity
- environmental quality
- equal opportunity
- equality
- equitable
- equitableness
- equity
- ethnicity
- excluded
- exclusion
- expression
- female
- females
- feminism
- fostering inclusivity
- GBV
- gender
- gender based
- gender based violence
- gender diversity
- gender identity
- gender ideology
- gender-affirming care
- genders
- Gulf of Mexico
- hate speech
- health disparity
- health equity
- hispanic minority
- historically
- identity
- immigrants
- implicit bias
- implicit biases
- inclusion
- inclusive
- inclusive leadership
- inclusiveness
- inclusivity
- increase diversity
- increase the diversity
- indigenous community
- inequalities
- inequality
- inequitable
- inequities
- inequity
- injustice
- institutional
- intersectional
- intersectionality
- key groups
- key people
- key populations
- Latinx
- LGBT
- LGBTQ
- marginalize
- marginalized
- men who have sex with men
- mental health
- minorities
- minority
- most risk
- MSM
- multicultural
- Mx
- Native American
- non-binary
- nonbinary
- oppression
- oppressive
- orientation
- people + uterus
- people-centered care
- person-centered
- person-centered care
- polarization
- political
- pollution
- pregnant people
- pregnant person
- pregnant persons
- prejudice
- privilege
- privileges
- promote diversity
- promoting diversity
- pronoun
- pronouns
- prostitute
- race
- race and ethnicity
- racial
- racial diversity
- racial identity
- racial inequality
- racial justice
- racially
- racism
- segregation
- sense of belonging
- sex
- sexual preferences
- sexuality
- social justice
- sociocultural
- socioeconomic
- status
- stereotype
- stereotypes
- systemic
- systemically
- they/them
- trans
- transgender
- transsexual
- trauma
- traumatic
- tribal
- unconscious bias
- underappreciated
- underprivileged
- underrepresentation
- underrepresented
- underserved
- undervalued
- victim
- victims
- vulnerable populations
- women
- women and underrepresented
