Within hours of returning to power Monday, United States President Donald Trump issued a stunningly broad executive order that seeks to dismantle crucial protections for transgender people and denies the validity of gender identity itself.
The new order withdraws a range of executive orders issued by former President Joe Biden, including those allowing transgender people to serve in the military, advancing the health and well-being of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth, and interpreting federal sex discrimination protections in domains like education, housing, and immigration to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
The order states that the US government will recognize only two sexes, male and female, that are fixed at birth, and orders government agencies to end all reference to and consideration of a person’s gender identity. This sweeping redefinition threatens federal programs used by transgender people and impacts federal documentation such as passports, which can currently reflect the gender identity of transgender and nonbinary people.
The order also pledges to withhold federal funding from any programs that promote “gender ideology,” echoing language used by right-wing movements across Europe and Latin America to oppose not only recognition of transgender people but broader sexual and reproductive rights.
Worryingly, it instructs agencies to house transgender people in detention according to their sex assigned at birth, putting them at extreme risk of physical and sexual violence, and to withhold gender-affirming care in prisons, which can amount to cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment or punishment under international law. The order further instructs the Department of Justice to help agencies reinforce sex-segregated spaces that exclude transgender people, potentially excluding transgender individuals from everyday facilities like bathrooms but also from crucial services like shelters for those facing homelessness and intimate partner violence.
Some of the order’s provisions will face legal challenges, as they seem to squarely conflict with federal law and judicial precedent. However, the order’s scope underscores the administration’s intention to erase transgender people from public life and strip them of basic protections.
In 2023, the United Nations Human Rights Committee urged the US to address persistently high rates of discrimination and violence against transgender people. Instead, these actions are poised to exacerbate this mistreatment.
In this increasingly hostile environment, lawmakers across the political spectrum should reaffirm that transgender people have the right to live free from discrimination and work to enshrine that basic principle into lasting and meaningful protections.
