Media reports on Monday stirred anxiety among gay rights activists by reporting that President Trump could rescind an executive order instituted by his predecessor, but that never happened.

Washington Post columnist and CNN contributor Josh Rogin led the story on Twitter, saying he was "told reliably there is a draft executive order on LGBT issues including adoption" and that it "could allow federal employees to refuse to serve LGBT based on belief marriage is between man & woman or gender is immutable from birth."

More: EO could allow fed employees to refuse to serve LGBT based on belief marriage is b/t man & woman or gender is immutable from birth — Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) January 30, 2017



Rogin told the Washington Examiner that even though the White House on Tuesday kept in place the Obama administration order, his and his colleagues' reporting was accurate.

"There was a draft executive order," he said. "Apparently [President Trump] decided not to move forward with it. I don't see any evidence of any wrong reporting. Quite the contrary. The reporting seems to have been spot on."

The White House released a statement Tuesday morning saying Trump is "determined to protect the rights of all Americans, including the LGBTQ community" and that "the executive order signed in 2014, which protects employees from anti-LGBTQ workplace discrimination while working for federal contractors, will remain intact at the direction of President Donald J. Trump."

But reports, particularly in gay-centric publications ahead of the official statement, suggested Trump was about to alter Obama's order and some of those reports relied on Rogin's statements.

The New York Times reported that Trump's statement on continuing to enforce the regulation was "in response to growing questions about whether Mr. Trump would reverse the Obama order."

Rogin said that outcome did not contradict his reporting. "The build up [to Trump's eventual statement] is perfectly in line with the outcome if what happened was that the White House saw the huge backlash and therefore backed off," he said. "I'm not reporting that's what happened but that would explain it perfectly."

He also said that although he had not seen a draft of the would-be reversal on the order, "administration sources who were briefed on the the draft" told him it exists.

Trump has largely departed from the national Republican Party in his tone and stated policy priorities regarding LGBTQ issues. Though he has said he is personally opposed to same-sex marriage, after the election, he said he was "fine" with it.

His statement Tuesday morning also said he's "proud to have been the first ever GOP nominee to mention the LGBTQ community in his nomination acceptance speech, pledging then to protect the community from violence and oppression."