The Environmental Protection Agency canceled a virtual event on LGBTQ pride and resilience that was to be given by an 84-year-old psychologist and longtime gay rights activist, because of President Donald Trumps executive order banning diversity training, HuffPost has learned.

The event, What LGBT Pride and Resilience Can Teach Us About Navigating Covid and Beyond, was scheduled for Oct. 7.

But a month before that, in a memo , the White House ordered federal agencies to stop holding diversity trainings, which it called divisive, anti-American propaganda. In a subsequent order, Trump extended the ban to all companies that contract with, or receive funding from, the federal government.

Though the orders appear to mostly concern trainings that focus on race and sex, the bans have had a far more broad effect, as the EPA action shows.

Whats so insidious and tyrannical about the executive orders and memos and guidances is they just cast such a broad net that anything falling into diversity and inclusion is now under threat, one EPA employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation, told HuffPost. People are afraid of getting in trouble because its like [a] McCarthyism communist Red Scare.

We arent familiar with the canceled event, EPA spokesman James Hewitt told HuffPost. EPA is committed to ensuring that all employees fully understand the laws and policies regarding civil rights, affirmative action, and equal access/equal opportunity. All EPA employees are expected to be familiar with and have a full understanding of the federal laws relating to civil rights.

Political appointees at the agency have largely avoided communicating restrictions on diversity events in writing, instead announcing cancellations and concerns during virtual office-hour sessions, according to another EPA employee who also spoke on the condition of anonymity. The prohibitions are unevenly applied across the agencys offices, the employee said, with a near-blanket ban on diversity-related programs in place at the agencys Washington, D.C., headquarters.

In recent weeks, the agency canceled several internal events examining how pollution disproportionately affects the poor and communities of color, Politico first reported . EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler, meanwhile, had recently promised to focus on the issue during a second Trump term.

The EPA also halted efforts to address complaints of racist messages scrawled on a shared wall calendar in the Office of Public Affairs two years ago, the second EPA employee told HuffPost. After hiring California-based consultancy Crossroads to advise managers on how better to respond to racist incidents in the future, political leadership at the agency intervened in September to cancel three upcoming consultation sessions.