DENVER — Denver shelters that cater to LGBTQ+ people are worried about the impact President Donald Trump's two-gender executive order could have on their missions.
At The Gathering Place in Denver, the focus is primarily on women, children and gender-diverse people.
"When we support the most vulnerable in our community, we actually are strengthening our community as a whole," said Heather Beck, CEO and president of The Gathering Place.
There's a similar mission at The Delores Project.
"Many of our transgender guests will say that if they couldn't stay at Delores, they would sleep on the street rather than at other places that don't feel safe to them," said Lucas Land, director of development at The Delores Project.
Federal funding for inclusive shelters like The Gathering Place and The Delores Project is potentially caught in the crosshairs of Trump's two-gender executive order, which orders the government to only acknowledge two genders (male and female).
Under the order, federal agencies, including the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), must realign policies to recognize only males and females. Transgender rights advocates said the move could impact Coloradans if funding is cut to local programs that recognize transgender people.
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About 45% of funding for The Delores Project comes from some sort of government support.
"It's a significant amount of our budget that comes through federal dollars, whether that is direct government grants that we've applied for and received or through state and local funding that is passed through dollars that comes from federal funds to us," said Land.
The Gathering Place has received three to five percent of its funding directly from the federal government over the last few years, and another 10 to 35% has come from state and local funding sources.
"We know that could really have an impact on how we carry out our mission," said Beck of potential future federal funding cuts.
While it's unclear how Trump's two-gender policies will be implemented, these organizations told Denver7 they do not plan to stop serving transgender or non-binary people, even if the federal government can only acknowledge male and female.
"We work with transgender and nonbinary people every day. I can tell you that they do exist," said Land.
Representatives of both organizations said they are hopeful that if federal funding is impacted, local communities may help support their cause.
"Donate, educate, volunteer and advocate are the biggest things I could say to our community," said Beck.
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