June Marks Critical Civil Rights Anniversaries Amid Deliberate Dismantling of Fundamental Protections

May 21. 2025

For Immediate Release
May 21, 2025

Media Contact
Nazirah Ahmad
[email protected]

ERA comments on the Trump administration’s systematic erosion of rights for women, students, LGBTQI+ individuals, and communities of color during the devastating first six months 

As we approach Pride Month and several U.S. landmark civil rights anniversaries in June, we are also witnessing the deliberate dismantling of fundamental protections in just 6 months since the Trump administration took office.

From the gutting of Title IX protections for students, to the elimination of disparate impact liability that makes pay discrimination nearly impossible to prove, and the elimination of workplace protections, these actions represent a calculated assault on decades of civil rights progress that is crushing women first and creating an economic crisis.

“We’re watching fifty years of progress being erased in five months.”

– Noreen Farrell, Executive Director

“At this rate, we won’t make it to the midterms with any civil rights protections intact,” said Noreen Farrell, Executive Director of Equal Rights Advocates. “What should be a month of celebrating progress on gender justice, LGBTQI+ rights, and workplace protections has become a fire alarm for civil liberties. This isn’t just policy, it’s a deliberate campaign to erase the rights of working women, LGBTQI+ Americans, and communities of color from federal recognition and protections. We’re watching fifty years of progress being erased in five months.”

When looking at a “then vs. now” contrast between historic achievements and current rollbacks, we see how they combine to create a comprehensive assault on civil rights, women’s economic security, and their ability to participate in civil life. This includes:

• the elimination of workplace protections creating an engineered economic crisis that’s crushing women of color first; 
• the gutting of Title IX protections emboldens predators while silencing victims;
• the weaponization and/or dismantling of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), including the illegal firing of EEOC commissioners and the order to OFCCP to immediately stop all investigations and enforcement;
• the erasure of nonbinary gender identities from federal recognition and the withdrawal by the EEOC from transgender worker discrimination actions;
• attacks on reproductive healthcare access, coupled with the dismantling of family support policies, creating economic barriers that make motherhood increasingly unviable; and
• the widening gender and racial wage gaps for the first time in 20 years, with women now earning only 83 cents for every dollar earned by men, and much worse for women of color. 

ERA will continue fighting federal attacks and helping states build firewalls of protection through strengthened anti-discrimination laws, reproductive healthcare protections, and inclusive policies that exceed weakened federal standards.

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