Donald Trump wasted no time in rolling back years of hard-won progress for transgender Americans, signing an executive order declaring that the federal government will no longer recognize trans people within hours of being sworn in as the 47th president.
He signed a second executive order, “Initial Rescissions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions,” which revokes several LGBTQI-inclusive Executive Orders issued by President Biden, including executive orders preventing discrimination against LGBTQ people and protecting trans people in the military.
“Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government” defines sex as strictly male or female based on the “immutable biological reality of sex” characteristics at birth and will, the administration claims, “defend women’s rights” and restore “trust in government itself.”
The order mandates immediate changes, directing federal agencies to rewrite policies and remove any reference to gender ideology, and allowing government-issued ID to reflect only an individual’s gender assigned at birth.
Schools, shelters, and workplaces that receive federal funding will no longer be required to accommodate transgender individuals’ gender identities transgender women in prisons and detention centers will be housed with men, regardless of their safety.
Among the executive orders addressed in Trump’s “Initial Rescission” order are: 13985, Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government; 13988, Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation; 14004, Enabling All Qualified Americans To Serve Their Country in Uniform; 14020, Establishment of the White House Gender Policy Council; 14035, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility in the Federal Workforce; 14075, Advancing Equality for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex Individuals; and14091, Further Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government.
The Congressional Equality Caucus and Lambda Legal issued statements decrying Trump’s orders, both vowing to fight his right-wing agenda.
Rep. Mark Takano, chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, said, “Donald Trump spent his first day back in the Oval Office seeking to both erase the existence of transgender people and curb government efforts to protect and support transgender people, as well as the wider LGBTQI+ community.
“The president and the federal government should be working to support all Americans — not singling out transgender and LGBTQI+ people for exclusion.”
U.S. Rep. Mark Takano, chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus
“The president and the federal government should be working to support all Americans — not singling out transgender and LGBTQI+ people for exclusion,” Takano continued. “Make no mistake: These attacks on our community are part of a larger strategy by Republicans to use anti-LGBTQI+ attacks to distract Americans from the massive tax cuts they want to give to their billionaire buddies — cuts they are going to pay for by cutting Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.”
Lambda Legal released a statement from CEO Kevin Jennings, condemning Trump’s executive orders “targeting LGBTQ+ people, everyone living with HIV and communities of color,” and pledging to challenge those orders in the courts.
Jennings said, “These executive orders include direct attacks on LGBTQ+ communities, particularly transgender people, youth and families whose lives, dignity and safety would be further jeopardized in this already-fraught moment when over two dozen states have already passed anti-LGBTQ+ laws since 2022.”
He noted that the administration is targeting “transgender and intersex people, especially youth, denying them access to essential public facilities, school programs and the same medically recommended health care that is readily available to their cisgender peers; anti-bias programming and protections in the workplace; and transgender, intersex, and nonbinary people who only seek to have accurate identity documents.
“The impact of these executive actions will be devastating — stripping away health care access, weakening workplace protections from abuse, inviting exclusion and harassment of vulnerable school children and giving a green light to discrimination throughout public life,” he said.
“The impact of these executive actions will be devastating — stripping away health care access, weakening workplace protections from abuse, inviting exclusion and harassment of vulnerable school children and giving a green light to discrimination throughout public life,”
Kevin Jennings, CEO of Lambda Legal
Jennings said the Trump administration’s “appalling approach” prioritizes limiting protections against sex discrimination and abuseand that it “denies science and will make life immeasurably harder for intersex, nonbinary and, of course, transgender people.”
He continued, “Lambda Legal secured the first U.S. passport with an ‘X’ gender marker for our brave client, Dana Zzyym, and we’ll continue to stand with Dana and all intersex, nonbinary and transgender people to defend their right to identity documents that accurately identify who they are and their equal protection rights against targeting and exclusion by their own government.
“While much of what is called for by the executive orders signed today will take time to implement, we will vigilantly monitor and be ready to challenge when they take effect. Lambda Legal has been at the forefront of these and other fights for more than 50 years, and we will not back down now.”
Jennings said Lambda Legal is “exploring every legal avenue to challenge these unlawful and unconstitutional actions, launching the “Fearless+Fighting Back campaign” because “This is not only about politics and ideology, but also about real people’s lives. … Our community will not be erased, and Lambda Legal will never stop fighting for justice. In the next four years, we may not be able to litigate every odious anti-LGBTQ policy change, but rest assured, attacks on our communities will not go unanswered. We stand ready to fight alongside our colleagues who likewise are standing up for justice to ensure no one is left behind.”
Jennings ended with a call for “Congress, state leaders and all allies of equality to reject these attacks and stand in defense of the rights of LGBTQ+ people.”
— Tammye Nash