Fearing funding cuts, the anti-sexual-violence organization RAINN barred referring callers to resources for L.G.B.T.Q. people, immigrants and other marginalized groups.
Fearing the loss of federal funding, the nation’s largest anti-sexual-violence organization has barred its crisis hotline staff from pointing people to resources that might violate President Trump’s executive orders to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.
The organization, RAINN (the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network) has removed more than two dozen resources for L.G.B.T.Q. people, immigrants and other marginalized groups from its list of permissible referrals, according to documents obtained by The New York Times. The employees who answer phone calls, and the volunteers who answer online and text chats, are instructed not to deviate from that list, a policy that predates the Trump administration.
For more than three months, they have been prohibited from suggesting specialized mental health hotlines for gay and transgender people, referring immigrants to the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, directing students to a group that educates them about sex-based discrimination, recommending books about male-on-male or female-on-female sexual violence, and more. Jennifer Simmons Kaleba, a spokeswoman for RAINN, confirmed that these resources had been removed.
RAINN and local affiliates operate the National Sexual Assault Hotline, which reported serving 460,000 people last year and is one of the country’s largest crisis lines for sexual violence survivors. RAINN also runs a federally funded help line for members of the military.
The Trump administration’s push to prohibit the use of federal funds for D.E.I. initiatives has led to debates within organizations across science, education, health and law over whether — and how — to comply in order to continue receiving federal funding. Mr. Trump has made dismantling these initiatives a central goal of his presidency, arguing that programs designed to redress discrimination against marginalized groups are themselves discriminatory. His executive orders face ongoing legal challenges.
At RAINN, the decision to ban referrals specific to L.G.B.T.Q. people and immigrants — groups that are disproportionately likely to experience sexual violence — angered many volunteers. A group of them signed a letter in February urging their leaders to restore the resources, and volunteers sent another letter this month escalating their concerns to the organization’s board of directors, whose members did not respond to requests for comment.