The Trump administration’s relentless campaign against transgender Americans has taken another dangerous turn. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, a critical resource for tracking and protecting at-risk youth, has erased all references to LGBTQ+ and particularly trans children from its public materials. The Verge reports that the purge came after the Department of Justice threatened to pull the organization’s federal funding if it didn’t comply with the administration’s anti-trans directives.
This directive follows Trump’s day one executive order eliminating federal recognition of transgender people, a sweeping and cruel policy shift designed to strip trans individuals of legal protections. The order mandates that all government agencies adopt rigid, binary definitions of sex and remove any acknowledgment of gender diversity from official records and resources.
A deep dive into NCMEC’s website using the Wayback Machine reveals that at least three key reports—including those on missing children with suicidal tendencies and male victims of child sex trafficking—were removed after January 24, The Verge reports. Additionally, three crucial guides on identifying and preventing child sex trafficking, which explicitly mentioned transgender and homeless LGBTQ+ youth, were deleted.
It remains unclear exactly when these removals took place, as website content can be altered for various reasons. However, journalist Marisa Kabas, who writes for The Handbasket, reported that the Department of Justice had warned NCMEC leadership earlier in the week that funding would be revoked unless a site-wide review was conducted.
Kabas obtained an email allegedly sent to NCMEC staff on Wednesday, stating that the organization had been contacted by its primary federal grantor on Monday to ensure all public materials aligned with the “spirit of the President’s Executive Orders.”
Advocates and experts warn that removing these references makes already vulnerable children even more invisible. Research consistently shows that transgender youth face disproportionate risks of homelessness, trafficking, and violence. By erasing them from these critical resources, the administration is making it harder for agencies to provide life-saving assistance.
This attack on transgender youth is part of a broader, coordinated effort by the Trump administration to erase LGBTQ+ people from public life. The Advocate has reported that, within 24 hours of Trump’s return to office, federal websites scrubbed LGBTQ+ and HIV-related resources, including those hosted by the White House and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. GLAAD and other advocacy organizations have condemned the move as a blatant act of censorship and erasure.
