Housing Agency Moves to Redefine Gender Rules-What It Means for Residents

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is moving to roll back equal-access housing rules, according to a proposed revision filed this week, in a move that is likely to have significant consequences on transgender individuals.

Under the new proposed guidance, the federal agency will remove references to "gender identity,” "sexual orientation,” and "gender" in the existing housing rules and replace them with "sex" across nearly 50 regulations, HUD said. That description of sex would only cover male and female.

How Would the Proposed Changes Affect Americans Using HUD-Funded Facilities, Services and Programs?

The proposed changes, which would apply to all HUD programs, would remove prohibitions on service providers from seeking information to confirm the sex of an individual seeking services. It would allow them, instead, to require "reasonable assurances or evidence" to establish a person's sex and challenge an individual's gender identity.

Access to qualifying facilities-federally-funded shelters, among others-would then be provided "in accordance with the sex of an individual based on his or her immutable biological classification as either male or female," the agency said, rather than their gender identity. Trans women, for example, would not be able to access women's shelters.

The changes have not yet taken effect, and public comments can be submitted until June 29. If enforced, the changes would dismantle protections established by the 2012 Equal Access Rule, which prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, or marital status, and by the 2016 update, which specifically focused on self-identification.

HUD Backing Trump's Fight Against Gender Ideology

"God created two sexes: male and female," HUD Secretary Scott Turner said in a statement on Tuesday announcing the rule change.

"The Left's war on biological reality through radical gender ideology will no longer take precedence over the safety and security of America's most vulnerable women," he said. "This proposed rule will bring biological truth and sanity back to HUD's policies."

Turner's statement is closely in line with President Donald Trump's agenda to "restore biological truth" in the United States, as he expressed it in an executive order issued at the very start of his second term, on January 20, 2025.

In it, the president ordered the country to recognize only "two sexes, male and female," specifying that "sex" shall refer to "an individual's immutable biological classification as either male or female.

As Trump did in his executive order last year, Turner also portrayed the rule change as a way to protect women in shelters and housing accommodations.

"HUD's Equal Access Rule would be adjusted to protect women's shelters and replace the prohibition on discrimination against ‘gender identity' in all Community Planning and Development programs," HUD said. "Common terms such as father, mother, man, woman, boy, and girl would be defined consistent with biological reality across HUD's regulations."

Changes Would Have ‘Immediate and Harmful Impacts,’ Advocates Say

Transgender rights advocates have immediately spoken out in opposition to the proposed changes.

In a statement on Tuesday, Kelly Parry-Johnson, senior counsel at nonprofit Advocates for Trans Equality (A4TE), called the HUD proposed revision, "a dangerous rollback of protections that ensure trans people can access federally funded shelters and services safely and without discrimination."

The changes, if enacted, "could have immediate and harmful impacts on our most vulnerable communities nationwide," Parry-Johnson said. "They replace clear, nondiscriminatory standards with vague policies that open the door to exclusion, profiling, and harm."

The revision proposed by Turner, the advocate said, "risks leaving trans people without clear recourse if they are denied services or placed in unsafe or inappropriate settings. It also reduces accountability for service providers, increasing the likelihood of inconsistent and discriminatory treatment.

"At a time when trans rights are already under widespread attack, this rule compounds the barriers trans people face in accessing basic needs like housing and shelter."

According to data from the UCLA Williams Institute, over 2.8 million adults (aged 18 and above) and youth (aged 13 to 17) in the U.S. identify as trans-roughly 1 percent of the country's population.

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This story was originally published April 29, 2026 at 9:55 AM.