South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem in Detroit on June 14, 2024 (Gage Skidmore)
A little-known but far-reaching office within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has removed protections for LGBTQ+ people from a policy that restricted intelligence gathering on certain groups, following an executive order from President Donald Trump to dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies. The DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A), one of 18 organizations that comprise the U.S. intelligence community—now overseen by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard—reportedly has long faced allegations of civil liberties and civil rights abuses.
The Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A) has stripped the words “gender identity” and “sexual orientation” from a policy manual “that set guardrails on gathering intelligence,” Bloomberg Government first reported. “I&A’s work has attracted close scrutiny for years because of its domestic focus, with intelligence often involving US citizens and others in the country.”
According to The Advocate, an archived version of the text previously read:
“OSIC Personnel are prohibited from engaging in intelligence activities based solely on an individual’s or group’s race, ethnicity, gender, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, country of birth, nationality, or disability. The use of these characteristics is permitted only in combination with other information, and only where (1) intended and reasonably believed to support one or more of I&A’s national or departmental missions and (2) narrowly focused in support of that mission (or those missions).”
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The words “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” have since been removed.
“The Office of Intelligence & Analysis (I&A) is a unique member of the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC),” the office states on its homepage within the DHS domain. “I&A is the only IC element statutorily charged with delivering intelligence to our State, Local, Tribal and Territorial (SLTT) and private sector partners, and developing intelligence from those partners for the Department and the IC.”
“I&A specializes in sharing unique intelligence and analysis with operators and decision-makers to identify and mitigate threats to the homeland,” it continues. “I&A’s main focus is to provide the Department with the intelligence and information it needs to keep the Homeland safe, secure, and resilient.”
In January 2024, Just Security—an independent, nonpartisan law and policy journal led by co-editor-in-chief Ryan Goodman—reported that DHS’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A) “has for years engaged in abusive domestic intelligence practices targeting Americans’ political views and broadly painting certain groups of Americans as terrorists.”
“Since at least 2016,” Just Security’s Spencer Reynolds wrote, “I&A officers have conducted interviews with people held in jails without sufficient constitutional protections, targeted journalists and activists protesting local monuments under the guise of homeland security, surveilled racial justice demonstrators, and monitored political views shared by millions of Americans — about topics like abortion, government, and elections — that DHS baldly asserts will lead to violence.”
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It also alleged that “I&A too often disseminates questionable intelligence to thousands of officials nationwide. This pattern of abuse continues today: I&A is currently engaged in an intelligence campaign that has empowered Georgia authorities to weaponize state terrorism and racketeering charges in a crackdown against activists protesting a police training facility in Atlanta.”
Reynolds has an extensive background in intelligence and law, including serving as senior intelligence counsel in the Office of the General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, “where he advised on operations and policy related to domestic intelligence, counterterrorism, social media monitoring, and other national security matters,” according to his bio.
As The Advocate noted, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem “has a history of targeting LGBTQ+ rights, including by signing executive orders banning transgender athletes from participating on teams that align with their identities and banning gender-affirming care for youth.”