Amid Trump’s Attacks on LGBTQ+ People, the Human Rights Campaign Is Laying Off 20% of Staff

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The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) is laying off 20% of its workforce and shifting its focus to areas where it “can make the most impact,” per an exclusive report in The Advocate.

The LGBTQ+ publication spoke with an anonymous senior official at the national LGBTQ+ advocacy organization, who said that the layoffs will take place on February 12 and impact roughly 50 employees, leaving the organization with 180 staff members.

The organization reportedly notified staffers of the cuts in a Tuesday meeting; when asked about severance for workers who are being laid off, HRC president Kelley Robinson did not provide specific details, but said that those discussions are “the hardest part,” and that the organization is “in active conversations with our union.”

According to documents reviewed by The Advocate, the organization’s fundraising efforts have exceeded expectations since 2017. But those surpluses led to greater programming and operating costs at a level that is now considered unsustainable. Per financial reports that are available on HRC’s website, HRC’s revenue totaled $75,070,087 in 2024, with costs totaling $88,875,576. In 2023, revenue totaled $85,101,698, with costs of $85,340,939.

The organization has also received significant criticism in recent years over ties to weapons manufacturer Northrop Grumman, which was formerly listed on HRC’s website as a “Platinum Partner,” denoting a high-level corporate sponsorship. (At the time of this writing, Northrup Grumman is no longer listed on HRC’s Corporate Partners page.)

Anonymous HRC officials told The Advocate that the decision to lay off staffers came from the need to ensure “a balanced budget in the face of a new environment that requires a reset as we ready ourselves for the challenges ahead.” An official also told the publication that the organization “explored a range of cost-saving measures” in order to avoid layoffs, but that the restructuring came from “both strategic and budget reasons.”

The staffing reductions for the largest LGBTQ+ civil rights organization in the country come amid an especially alarming time for LGBTQ+ civil rights in the U.S. In the past three weeks since Donald Trump was inaugurated for his second presidential term, he has signed executive orders that aim to restrict gender-affirming care for youth under 19 and end so-called “gender ideology” in schools. On a global scale, Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s freeze on foreign aid could have disastrous consequences for PEPFAR, a program that provides HIV medication for thousands worldwide, potentially jeopardizing the health of more than 20 million people worldwide, according to experts interviewed by the New York Times.

In a statement to The Advocate, Robinson suggested that the layoffs are intended to help the organization focus on areas where it can “make the most impact.”

“From 2022, where we saw that spike in anti-LGBTQ legislation, to 2023, when we declared the state of emergency, to this year and last year as we see challenges not only at the state level, challenging electoral outcomes and also historical softening in institutions out of fear from maintaining the progress that we’ve had on our issues,” Robinson told the publication. “So as we look at the environment, we realize that things were changing. And for me, I think that any responsible organization right now needs to be thinking about what changes have to be made to address the world as it is today.”

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Statewide anti-LGBTQ+, and specifically anti-trans, legislation has increased significantly over the past several years. The ACLU tracked 533 anti-LGBTQ+ bills in the U.S. in 2024 alone. Though a minority of those bills actually passed into law, anti-LGBTQ+ legislation still has harmful impacts on youth mental health, as one Trevor Project report found in 2022.

To that end, the organization will be honing its focus on “schools, workplaces, policies, and politics,” areas that Robinson said will allow HRC to “make the most impact.” Specifically, the organization will continue to advocate for protections for workers and students and fight harmful legislation while advocating for legislation that protects LGBTQ+ people as well.

On January 28, HRC announced that it would be joining with LGBTQ+ legal advocacy organization Lambda Legal to sue the Trump administration’s ban on trans people serving in the military. The organization has also issued statements on Trump’s comments about trans athletes and his executive order that aims to ban gender -affirming care for those under the age of 19.

An HRC spokesperson declined further comment to Them.

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