The United States will recognize only two sexes, male and female, that are unchangeable, U.S. President Donald Trump ordered on Monday as he moved to quickly end a range of policies aimed at promoting racial equity and protecting rights for 2SLGBTQ+ people.
The order requires the government use the term “sex” rather than “gender,” while mandating that identification documents issued by the government, including passports and visas, be based on what it described as “an individual’s immutable biological classification as either male or female.”
Hours after taking office, Trump quickly moved to fulfil campaign promises to roll back policies put in place by the Biden administration, which prioritized implementing diversity measures across the federal government.
Trump repealed 78 executive orders signed by his predecessor, including at least a dozen measures supporting racial equity and combating discrimination against gay and transgender people.
Among the rollbacks, Trump rescinded two orders that Biden signed on his first day in office four years ago, one advancing racial equity for underserved communities and another combating discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation.
Trump repealed other orders aimed at helping Black, Hispanic, Native American and Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
“This week, I will also end the government policy of trying to socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life,” the 78-year-old said in his inaugural address, as he returned to power after four years out of the Oval Office.
“We will forge a society that is colour-blind and merit-based,” Trump said. “As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders: male and female.”
‘What does that really mean’
Tanya Neslusan, the executive director of the U.S.-based MassEquality advocacy organization, said that Trump’s inauguration remarks were consistent with the “anti-LGBT … and transphobic rhetoric” of his current and past administration, but nonetheless left many question marks.
“What does that really mean — it being ‘official policy,’ there are a lot of steps that need to be taken that are more specific than just saying that it is an official policy,” Neslusan told a CBS News affiliate in Boston, ahead of Trump signing the related executive order.
Trump’s moves to scrap many diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies and sharply curtail transgender rights coincided with this year’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday commemorating the late civil rights leader.
Maya Wiley, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, said Trump’s policies are a step backward.
“Dr. King had a dream, and this is his nightmare: the rollback of the work of our civil and human rights coalition over the past 75 years,” Wiley said in a statement.
Challenges to come
Civil and human rights advocates and groups immediately vowed to protect minorities and challenge Trump’s agenda.
“We refuse to back down or be intimidated. We are not going anywhere, and we will fight back against these harmful provisions with everything we’ve got,” said Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, the largest 2SLGBTQ+ rights advocacy group in the U.S., in a statement.
Rights advocates have said any DEI and transgender rights rollbacks implemented by Trump would be a blow to hard-fought efforts to secure equitable policies and undermine progress made to address systemic prejudices that have deprived equal opportunities for marginalized groups for decades.
“We will continue our relentless efforts to protect immigrant rights, combat voter suppression and confront hate and discrimination in all its forms,” Asian Americans Advancing Justice said in a statement.
Many corporations — including Meta, McDonald’s and Walmart — have distanced themselves from DEI measures, with some rolling back DEI initiatives and programs in recent weeks. Meanwhile, companies such as Costco and Apple have remained resolute in maintaining their commitment to DEI.
A recurrent Republican focus
The Trump administration will also seek to limit the scope of a major victory for transgender rights under the 2020 U.S. Supreme Court ruling of Bostock v Clayton County, in which the high court found that civil rights protections against discrimination “on the basis of sex” applied to sexuality and gender identity.
The attorney general would provide explicit guidance on how to apply Bostock.
Transgender rights have become a contentious political topic in recent years. During November’s election season, many Republicans campaigned on reversing transgender laws with a particular focus on transgender women participating in sports. Related messaging was at the core of some advertising put forward by Trump’s campaign and supporting groups, who collectively spent millions of dollars to disseminate these ads late in the campaign.
During a pre-inauguration rally on Sunday, Trump said that he will take action to “keep all men out of women’s sports.”
It was not immediately clear what the executive orders would mean for the U.S. military. During his first term, Trump announced that he would ban transgender troops from serving in the military, and his administration did freeze recruitment of transgender personnel. Biden overturned that decision when he took office in 2021.
Brian Kalt, a constitutional law professor at Michigan State University, said that while presidents do have executive authority, some actions that Trump has promised to enact — such as ending birthright citizenship — will “face an uphill battle in court.”