Earlier this month, as first reported by Bloomberg, the DHS office of Intelligence and Analysis updated its policy manual, removing all mentions of LGBTQ+ identities from its General Requirements section, which includes a list of immutable characteristics that prohibit surveillance purely based on those characteristics.

The current secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, has some history targeting LGBTQ+ rights, and has signed executive orders restricting gender affirming care for youth and the right for transgender athletes to play sports on teams that align with their identity. Here is a message sent to all DHS employees on February 7th, 2025, foreshadowing the full compliance of the department.

A fear many transgender and gender non-conforming individuals in the United States have, understandably, is the potential for abuse of surveillance by the government towards them. With this removal, the concern that the government is tracking and targeting citizens that identify as LGBTQ+ becomes even more substantiated, and the possibility of a registry containing LGBTQ+ citizens could be a reality in the future.