HUD secretary directs agency to ban transgender women from federally funded women-only shelters

On his first day in office, Eric Turner made a bold move as Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). 

He directed agency staff to suspend all pending and future enforcement actions related to the Obama-era Equal Access Rule, which required HUD-funded programs and shelters to determine eligibility based on a person’s self-identified gender.

Turner said that the move was part of President Donald Trump’s agenda to “restore biological truth to the federal government.”

“We want to protect the ladies entering any HUD facilities,” Turner told reporters Thursday, adding that he wants to “restore equal rights, but no extra rights.” The Secretary added that most of the females who utilize HUD shelters already come from domestic violence situations, and he wants to ensure that their tragedies are not exacerbated when they turn to the federal government for help.

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Trump’s newly confirmed HUD Secretary Eric Turner is rescinding rules prohibiting federally funded shelters from asking for proof of someone’s biological gender.

Turner’s directive follows Trump’s Day One executive order terminating federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and mandating the federal government only recognize two genders, male and female. This week, Trump signed an executive order preventing biological males who identify as females from competing on women’s sports teams, as well as another prohibiting minors from receiving puberty blockers or transition surgery.

Under the 2016 Equal Access Rule that Turner is rescinding, homeless shelters, domestic violence shelters and other federally funded HUD-assisted housing programs were prohibited from requiring people to prove they are biologically female. Following Turner’s directive, this will no longer be prohibited. 

President Donald Trump signs the No Men in Women’s Sports Executive Order into law in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 5, 2025.  (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP)

In 2018, nine California women filed a lawsuit against a local women’s shelter in Fresno, which operates with public funds, for allegedly forcing them to take showers alongside a biological male who identified as a woman and who they claimed sexually harassed them. 

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Last year, police in Greenville, South Carolina, arrested a transgender woman, Michelle Silva Perez, for stabbing a shelter employee after Perez was admitted to the emergency shelter meant only for women and mothers. The facility, which receives both state and federal funding, said it would have acted differently if it had known that the suspect was not a biological woman.

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A protester holds a placard outside of the Pennsylvania Capitol this week during a 50501 Movement protesting the Trump administration’s policies aimed at transgender folks.

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.