https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/doj-orders-child-safety-authority-comply-trumps-gender-ideology-order-rcna191282The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), the primary U.S. nonprofit fighting child sexual exploitation, said Friday that it is removing all references to transgender people from its public materials.
The move is in accordance with an executive order President Trump signed last week, which bars federal funding that goes to “gender ideology” and makes it the official policy of the federal government not to recognize their gender identity.
“Earlier this week, like many federally funded non-profits, NCMEC was directed by DOJ to comply with Executive Order 14168,” a NCMEC spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “We are responding to this direction in a balanced way reviewing our publicly facing materials to ensure compliance while not impacting our 40-year mission of child protection.”
As a nonprofit, NCMEC relies heavily on grant money from the Department of Justice. It is the nation’s largest private sector organization to search for missing and exploited children, and it coordinates with law enforcement and tech companies to identify and remove child sexual abuse material.
Derrick Driscoll, NCMEC’s chief operating officer, told NBC News in a phone interview that the organization’s primary operations would not change, but the executive order compelled it to remove materials that mentioned transgender adults and children. He declined to speak about specific reports.
“The direction from DOJ, our grantor, was specifically to review our public-facing platforms and materials for compliance,” he said. “Our ability to locate and recover missing children and to protect victims of child sexual exploitation remains unchanged and will remain unchanged.”
News of the shift at NCMEC was first reported by independent reporter Marisa Kabas.
The White House and Justice Department did not respond to requests for comment.
