DENVER - While the online preview for the US Department of State's website still showed verbiage indicating resources for "LGBTQI+ Prospective Adoptive Parents" on Tuesday afternoon, once clicked into the page, there's a new acronym: LGB.
The page for LGBTQI+ Travelers shows the same change.
The move follows President Trump's executive order banning federal agencies from including references to any gender ideology, other than the male and female sex.
"To remove the 'T' from the transgender identity from all federally funded websites and resources sends a really big signal that trans people are under attack from this administration," said Jax Gonzalez with One Colorado.
Pride
Advocates ready to protect LGBTQ+ Coloradans following Trump's two-gender order
It's the state's largest LGBTQIA+ advocacy organization.
"It's really important that we show solidarity among our community and have a fully representative acronym, because then what we're signaling is we're together on this," said Gonzalez.
They explained that the first acronym was: GLB.
"Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual, and you can see that used in the 70s and 80s to identify the gay rights movement," Gonzalez said.
The 'L' representing Lesbians then became the first letter of the acronym to represent their contributions during the HIV and AIDS epidemic in the late 80's.
"So many people in this country were worried about how HIV was transmitted. We didn't really understand how it worked. And so nurses would refuse to treat men who were dying of HIV and AIDS. Lesbians stepped in, lesbian nurses, lesbian volunteers, stepped in to run hotlines get information out and support the healing of our community," said Gonzalez.
Then in the late 90's, the 'T' representing transgender people was added.
"There was the death of Brandon Tina, that was a young trans man who died at the hands of some people who didn't believe that Brandon Tina should exist. After that, we had a surge of visibility of transness, and by the late 90s, the T was added to the LGBT acronym, and it has been there ever since," said Gonzalez, "The LGBTQ acronym is about solidarity. It's about recognizing that my oppression as a trans person is wrapped up in the oppression of a lesbian person because of the society and rules we all live under."
Advocates said they are confident that while a letter has been erased, transgender people won't be.
"LGBTQ people have existed long before we have any recognition from government powers and will continue to exist, regardless of if the federal government says we do," said Gonzalez.
'My faith did save me'
- During last year's Pride month celebrations, Denver7 shined a light on startling statistics which showed half of LGBTQ+ Coloradans reported experiencing poor mental health.
In the video player below, see how some in the community turned to their faith to help.
Denver7 is committed to making a difference in our community by standing up for what's right, listening, lending a helping hand and following through on promises. See that work in action, in the videos above.