The Bureau of Land Management has quietly revised its formal workplace policy statement to remove “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” from the list of classes of people who will be protected from discrimination in the workplace or employment application process.
The revised Equal Employment Opportunity policy statement posted Tuesday on BLM’s website also removed as a formal goal a previous commitment to create a bureau-wide culture that “embraces diversity” and “inclusiveness,” in what appears to be the latest effort by the Trump administration to reshape federal workforce policies.
The EEO policy still states that BLM employees and applicants for employment are shielded from discrimination “regardless of their race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age (40 years or older), disability, genetic information (including family medical history),” among several other factors. But the terms gender identity and sexual orientation that were part of the Biden-era workplace policy have been removed from the list.
The revised EEO statement does not alter the administration’s responsibility to adhere to federal employment and labor laws.
