President Donald Trump’s administration has pledged to retain the workplace rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people implemented by an executive order signed by former President Barack Obama in 2014.
“The President is proud to have been the first ever GOP (Republican) nominee to mention the LGBTQ community in his nomination acceptance speech, pledging then to protect the community from violence and oppression,” the White House said in a statement, according to Reuters.
Obama’s order banned companies that do federal work from discriminating against LGBT employees. It was the first time the U.S. government explicitly protected federal workers from discrimination based on gender identity, according to the New York Times.
A draft of a potential executive order that would overturn Obama’s directive began circulating in Washington over the weekend.
“I’m not going to get in and get ahead of the executive orders that we may or may not issue,” Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, said when asked about the rumors during a press briefing on Monday. “There is a lot of executive orders, a lot of things that the President has talked about and will continue to fulfill, but we have nothing on that front now.”
