Defend, Delay, Litigate: Resisting the New Authoritarianism

CGE Staff
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Over the course of the first two weeks of the second Trump administration, we’ve seen the Project 2025 agenda for autocratic rule rolled out with remarkable precision. Yes, there have been a few clumsy missteps, especially from acting officials in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). But the sheer speed and staggering scope of the assault on the federal government is exactly the shock-and-awe assault on democratic government that Project 2025 envisioned. And if the Senate confirms Project 2025 author and OMB-nominee Russell Vought, the pinpoint ferocity of the attack will surely intensify. Perhaps the only true surprise is that the assault has been implemented with a level of cruelty that even Project 2025 didn’t fully convey.

Since President Trump’s inauguration and Secretary Rubio’s confirmation on January 20, a new “anti-woke” diplomatic agenda has taken hold that scapegoats refugees; bashes international institutions and human rights norms; and weaponizes diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) initiatives, antisemitism, and the lives of transgender, intersex, and gender-non-conforming people to demonize all foreign assistance. The new administration seeks to secure strength through cruelty, leadership through fear, and long-term dominance by overwhelming constitutional checks and balances.

Even within the context of the new administration’s vicious war on the most vulnerable members of our society, the assault on LGBTQI+ Americans has been staggering, and the attack on transgender and intersex persons unconscionable. Domestically, our organizations and allies are rallying to oppose this unprecedented onslaught on our lives and families in the courts and in the court of public opinion. But the global implications of this offensive have received less attention.

In under two weeks, nearly all U.S. government programs and most of the U.S. government experts who supported the human rights of LGBTQI+ persons around the world have been either terminated altogether or suspended with the intention of permanently terminating them in the coming weeks. The lowlights of the past two weeks include:

  • Day One Executive Orders signed by President Trump seek to rescind legal protections for LGBTQI+ Americans and deny the very existence of transgender and intersex persons — a first step, as history teaches us, in any attempt to dehumanize and persecute a minority community. Additional orders shut down the U.S. refugee program, deny asylum protections across the country, shutter the Gender Policy Council, withdraw the United States from the World Health Organization, and pause all U.S. foreign assistance to allow a political review of U.S. global investments for their fidelity to Trumpism and to excise any notions of diversity or gender.
  • The funding pause outlined in Trump’s foreign assistance Executive Order has been operationalized as a broad “stop work order“ for nearly all U.S. foreign assistance programs globally, which is having an intense impact on many CGE colleagues and those partners we work with around the world. Secretary Rubio granted a narrow humanitarian waiver, which hopefully will allow some emergency HIV/AIDS interventions through PEPFAR to restart in the coming days, but to date, no operational guidance has been given and all PEPFAR programs are still shutting down.
  • On his second day in office, Secretary Rubio released a statement interpreting what an “America First” foreign policy looks like. In it, Secretary Rubio vows to “return to the basics of diplomacy by eliminating our focus on political and cultural causes that are divisive at home and deeply unpopular abroad.” Surely, that was an intended swipe at U.S. human rights policies and investments in general and support for the human rights of LGBTQI+ persons in particular. The United States also has rejoined the so-called “Geneva Consensus Declaration,” which is an anti-LGBTQI+, anti-abortion manifesto that appropriates Vladimir Putin’s rhetoric on protection of the family to justify a broad anti-rights agenda. 
  • In the same statement on U.S. foreign policy priorities, Secretary Rubio noted that “President Trump issued an executive order eliminating ”DEIA” [diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility] requirements, programs, and offices throughout the government. This order will be faithfully executed and observed in both letter and spirit.” To implement that policy, on the very same day, Secretary Rubio sent a notice to all State Department employees with this ominous warning: “The Administration is aware of efforts by some in government to disguise these [DEIA] programs by using coded or imprecise language. If you are aware of a change in any contract description or personnel position description since November 5, 2024 [i.e., Election Day], to obscure the connection between the contract and DEIA or similar ideologies, please report all facts and circumstances to DEIAtruth@opm.gov within 10 days.” The notice goes on to warn in sinister tones that: “There will be no adverse consequences for timely reporting this information. However, failure to report this information within 10 days may result in adverse consequences.” These Big Brother-style reporting mandates have been replicated in other recent employment orders and clearly are intended to turn civil servants against each other and to create a climate of fear in the federal workforce — and by anecdotal reports, it’s working.
  • Late last week, the White House also revived the Global Gag Rule, restricting U.S. global health funds to only go to foreign organizations that promise not to provide, promote, counsel, refer, or advocate for abortion in nearly all circumstances. While often discussed as “only” an abortion restriction, the Global Gag Rule has a disproportionate negative impact on LGBTQI+ health services and human rights. With the intentional chaos caused by the foreign assistance Executive Order, stop work orders, and ruthless targeting of staff and programs working on LGBTQI+ rights, gender, disability, and racial discrimination, it is difficult now to even know what will be left of foreign assistance to be subject to the additional grave harm of the Global Gag Rule.

In the face of this vast assault on human rights and global leadership, CGE and our member groups are taking a moment to regroup and to commit to an immediate strategy of “Defend, Delay, Litigate.” And as we align our strategic thinking for a path forward, we are reflecting on our working dynamics with national movements around the world. At this moment of crisis, we specifically seek to move forward in the spirit of mutual solidarity and engagement with the global movement for human dignity and LGBTQI+ equality. In particular, the U.S. movement must be understood to be “a player among players.” This will require more humility and mutual exchanges, information sharing, strategic guidance, and emotional support between different axis points within the global movement.

As our agenda unfolds in this new era, CGE plans to organize activities around three themes: defending democracy; preserving institutions where possible and “losing forward” when necessary; and promoting new U.S. voices and new thinking in support of equality everywhere. While defending democracy, we will be guided by our concerns and understanding of Project 2025, which was clearly the blueprint for Trump’s initial Executive Orders and about which CGE has been raising alarms since early last year with an advocacy document that has circulated widely within our membership and on Capitol Hill. This will include efforts to delay, deflect, and litigate against hostile policies.

CGE recognizes that it will not be possible to preserve most, if any, of the institutions, funding mechanisms, or personnel positions that were piloted or expanded over the past four years of the Biden administration to promote and protect global LGBTQI+ rights. But we will try to “lose forward” by limiting the damage — which often will mean trying to contain any rollback to policy or executive order and not to legislation — and to do so while simultaneously creating awareness, promoting grassroots education, and ultimately creating a constituency to reverse setbacks at the next possible political opportunity.

CGE also will seek to expand the range of both U.S. state-level officials and private actors who promote LGBTQI+ rights globally by speaking to a broader vision of the United States and our country’s history. This strategy is a direct response to the impact of the loss of high-level U.S. leadership at the federal level in support of LGBTQI+ rights globally, and the reality that the Trump administration is now a global leader of the anti-gender movement to deny and undermine human rights norms and institutions.

CGE tried to lean into the beginning of the second Trump administration with an olive branch to Secretary Marco Rubio and his team. Putting our best foot forward, we recognized with some hope that CGE had worked with Senator Rubio in the past to bring attention to the persecution of LGBTQI+ persons in Russia and Chechnya and that he cosponsored a Senate Resolution during Trump’s last term calling attention to atrocities against LGBTQI+ persons. But his actions — or his acquiescence to orders from the White House — over the past two weeks smashed any opportunity to find common ground. It’s clear that Trump’s “America First” agenda is a rallying call for petty retribution, white Christian nationalism, and self-enrichment by those surrounding Trump. It sets us on the road to authoritarianism and Secretary Rubio appears to be a ready steward on that journey.

As Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde urged in her inaugural message, we must not abandon those now in the crosshairs — LGBTQI+ people, immigrants, and others being stripped of rights and dignity. They are not political pawns: they are our neighbors, our families, our communities. History reminds us that those who wield power through fear and division ultimately falter in the face of collective resistance and moral clarity. This moment demands our courage and solidarity.