President Donald Trump’s executive orders aren’t just shutting down diversity efforts in military academies, experts say — they’re making it harder to access important resources to address sexual assault.
Trump signed an executive order during his second week in office mandating that all branches of the armed forces close “DEI offices” and strip any materials or courses that reference “divisive concepts” and “gender ideology.”
Soon after, the U.S. Navy, Marines and Coast Guard paused sexual assault prevention and response trainings. (Some have restarted trainings; others remain on pause.) Gender and sexuality classes at service academies were canceled. Student affinity groups and clubs, including those for women and people of color, were forced to shut down.