When Wylie joined the Postal Service in December, they had two very contradictory thoughts about the coming return of Donald Trump.
They knew, as a nonbinary transgender person, that the next four years would be hell. Trump, after all, had made attacking what he called “transgender insanity” a central part of his 2024 campaign and his first administration. But Wylie didn’t want to hide who they are, either.
Instead, working with the public each day would be a quiet way of resisting the demonization from the White House, while also keeping an ear to the ground in case the public mood grew too violent.
“I wanted to be out in the streets, be where people can see me, and also see the day-to-day on the streets so that if anything starts changing I perhaps have time to respond,” said Wylie, who asked not to use their full name for their safety.
Since taking office, the Trump administration has pushed through a suite of major policy changes towards how the government treats LGBTQ+ people, including federal employees. It has denied legal recognition of trans people, barred them from the military, ended federal spending on gender-affirming healthcare, and sought to eliminate any trace of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) work or language within the government.
There have also been more subtle changes, like the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission dropping investigations into anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination, the rescinding of an order barring discrimination against federal contractors, and a government website eliminating references to transgender people on a page about the Stonewall Uprising.
The Trump administration has sought to limit discrimination investigations regard LGBTQ+ people, cut off transgender medical care, and eliminate all spending on diversity and inclusion in the government (Getty Images)
Federal workers told The Independent these steps amount to a new Lavender Scare, the paranoid, Cold War-era purge of LGBTQ+ people from the federal government that caused thousands to leave federal service for good. None of those interviewed for this story wanted to use their full names for fear of reprisals.
In agencies and offices around the country, LGBTQ+ government officials are wrestling with what they can say around their colleagues, which bathrooms they can use, and how they’ll survive now that the government won’t fund gender-affirming healthcare.
Wylie has alternated between defiance and defense, continuing to using the bathroom of their choice in federal buildings, while also engaging an immigration attorney in case they have to flee the country if Trump goes further down what they see as his “Nazi” path.
“I kind of assume that I will be driven out of the country in the next four years,” Wylie added. “I am an Eagle Scout. I love this country, but it clearly doesn’t love me back.”
Federal workers fear speaking openly about their identities, worried such comments might be used as part of a DOGE-led cut to their position (Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)
Wylie, who uses gender-affirming hormones, told The Independent it is basically impossible for them to physically hide their gender identity. Others within the government say they’ve tried to remain as anonymous as possible, given the chilling climate around them.
Brigette, who works at the Department of Interior in Colorado, is a trans woman, but her government documents and email address still use her previous name.
“I have the profound benefit at the moment of still passing as a cisgender man and being in a straight-passing relationship,” she said.
Brigette had been meaning to change her government documents to reflect her identity, but the Trump administration has declared there are only two immutable sexes which begin at birth, man and woman, and suspended the process for those seeking to change the gender on their U.S. passport.
“As far my employer is currently concerned,” Brigette said, “I don’t exist.”
She’s been careful not to speak too much about anything LGBTQ+-related on official channels, for fears it could later be used against her.
With government officials being ordered back to in-person work at federal offices, issues like trans people using the bathroom that matches their gender identity may come further to the fore (Getty Images)
She’s not the only one who’s worried they’re being watched. Government workers have reportedly taken to communicating on the encrypted messaging app Signal, for fears that lieutenants of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency initiative are recording official calls. Agency leaders have reportedly been told to draw up lists of those doing identity-related organizing, while workers are encouraged to report colleagues who have participated in DEI-related actions to an official tip line.
Last month, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard fired over 100 spies who allegedly used intelligence community chatrooms to discuss LGBTQ+ issues including transition surgery and pronouns.
She appears to have been acting on a tip from far-right activist Christopher Rufo, one of the architects of past right-wing panics over critical race theory and the debunked, racist conspiracy theory that Haitian migrants in Ohio were eating neighborhood pets.
A lesbian woman who works in federal law enforcement told The Independent she became alarmed when employees at her agency were told to take down their Pride flags and leave identity-focused government employee resource groups for their “safety.” She’s not out to her colleagues, and she intends to remain this way for now.
“It’s just like this really weird headspace that I’m in,” she said. “Can I say anything? Is someone going to report me? I don’t know. I’ve just kind of been pretending to be my old self until I figure out what’s happening.”
A worker said they sought out a public-facing job with the U.S. Postal Service explicitly because the Trump administration is trying to force transgender people out of government work (Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)
Transgender federal workers have been targeted most directly.
The Department of Defense is attempting to remove thousands of trans troops from the military.
While some see Trump’s anti-DEI push as a tacit way to discriminate against minorities without affirmatively singling out one group, Trump’s executive order on trans troops explicitly criticizes trans people on a moral dimension, claiming their identity is inherently at odds with “a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle.”
The present moment, with its tip lines and pseudo-scientific charges of “transgender insanity,” mirrors the Lavender Scare, according to observers. Throughout the 1950s, right-wing senators like Joseph McCarthy argued that queer people were both mentally unsound and security risks, vulnerable to Communist exploitation because of their minority identities.
Facing congressional investigations, unfounded allegations from colleagues, and an Eisenhower-era executive order that “sexual perversion” was grounds for firing, upwards of 5,000 queer workers left government service between the 1940s and ‘60s. The U.S. government wouldn’t fully start moving beyond this era until 1975, when new civil service rules held that civilian employees couldn’t be barred for being gay.
During the Obama administration, the State Department officially apologized for the Lavender Scare, an apology the first Trump administration removed from government websites.
Transgender members of the military, including US Army Reserve 2nd Lt. Nicolas Talbott (center), have been some of the government employees most impacted. The administration is seeking to push thousands of trans troops out (AFP via Getty Images)
“The sad truth is that this kind kind of action against LGBTQ federal employees is not unprecedented,” according to Carl Charles of Lambda Legal, an LBGTQ+-focused legal advocacy group which has challenged the Trump administration on various issues in court. “There was actually a larger purge of quote unquote homosexuals during the McCarthy era than there was of actual alleged Communists.”
“What folks are reasonably worried about is: Will there be another iteration of this, where people are just removed for who they are?” he added.
When asked for comment, the White House did not answer questions regarding its positions towards LGBTQ+ federal workers, and pointed to the Trump administration’s appointment of Scott Bessent as Treasury Secretary, the first openly gay person to hold that position.
“President Trump’s common sense agenda to eliminate wasteful DEI is wildly popular, but the legacy media continues to push divisive falsehoods to sow fear and divide Americans,” White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said in an email. “The entire administration is in line with President Trump’s America First agenda, including the highest-ranking LGBTQ Cabinet official in U.S. history.”
A transgender Parks Service ranger told The Independent they feel a genuine purge is already underway, where “the new administration is absolutely trying to force trans people out of public existence.”
They’re now looking for work outside the federal government.
“I’m hoping I can find work with a state government because I do want to remain a civil servant, but the current federal administration is so actively hostile it’s detrimental to my mental and physical health,” they said. “I don’t feel threatened by my coworkers or site leadership but I do not feel safe remaining a federal employee.”
With federal workers being ordered back to in-person work at government offices, Charles of Lambda Legal said we will see in the coming weeks how various agencies move forward with the administration’s policies.
Trump made criticisms of transgender people playing sports and children accessing gender-affirming care a central part of his 2024 campaign (AFP via Getty Images)
The federal government’s massive scope, as well administration’s often-chaotic style — repeatedly launching policies with little notice or suddenly going back on past commitments — leaves considerable room for variation.
Some agencies seem not to be leaping to implement the Trump agenda at the ground level.
An administrator at the Department of Interior in Colorado who is transgender said their supervisors told her they “had her back” and wouldn’t be enforcing bathroom bans or other aspects of the Trump orders.
Her colleagues know she’s trans — her email features her old name — but they don’t give her any trouble, and neither do the Trump supporters who visit the grassland she helps manage in a rural area in the state.
“I haven’t had any issues at all, even if they’re really big Trump supporters with the red hat,” she said.
Wylie, who works in a city on the West Coast, said many people on the street there don’t seem to share the same animosity towards LGBTQ+ people that exists in the administration. They often great the postal worker with a big smile or kind word.
“What I see on the streets gives me hope,” they said. “What I see on the news and coming from The White House just horrifies me.”
