President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday declaring the U.S. government recognizes only two genders, male and female, and ending “radical and wasteful” diversity, equity and inclusion programs within federal agencies. did.
In a Monday morning phone call ahead of Trump’s swearing-in, White House officials detailed both orders and categorized them within the Trump administration’s broader “restoring sanity” agenda.
Officials presented the gender order as part of a policy to “protect women from gender ideological extremism and restore biological truth to the federal government.”
The order aims to require the federal government to use the term “sex” instead of “gender,” and requires the State Department and Department of Homeland Security to ensure that “official government documents, including passports and visas, “to ensure that it is accurately reflected.” one of the officials said.
In 2022, the Biden administration will allow U.S. citizens to select the gender-neutral “X” as a marker on their passports.
The official said the Gender Ordinance would prevent taxpayer funds from being used for gender reassignment health care and provide “privacy in intimate spaces” to institutions such as prisons, immigrant shelters and rape shelters. It will be added.
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Mr. Trump has called for rolling back protections for transgender and non-binary people, highlighting the issue in television ads, including commercials that frequently air in key battleground states such as Pennsylvania. The most notable ad read, “Kamala is for them. President Trump is for you.”
The second order, detailed on Monday’s conference call, aims to end “radical and wasteful government DEI programs and policy priorities” within the federal government, one of the officials said.
The new administration will meet monthly with deputy heads of key agencies to “assess what types of DEI programs still discriminate against Americans and find ways to end them,” the official continued. He added that the new government intends to “dismantle the system.” DEI Bureaucracy,” which focuses on environmental justice programs and equity-related grants.
The official said it’s “very fitting” that the DEI order was announced on Martin Luther King Jr. Day because “this order is a sign that civil rights advocates have seized upon that one day all Because it is meant to return Americans to the promise and hope that they can be free.” They are treated based on their character, not the color of their skin. ”
In recent years, Trump and conservatives have attacked DEI efforts across American society as discriminatory.
President Trump referenced the order in his inaugural address Monday afternoon, saying in part that his administration would resist what he called efforts to “socially integrate race and gender into every aspect of public and private life.” . He added that his government would “build a color-blind, meritocratic society.”
Proponents of DEI in American society argue that such efforts are essential to making businesses, schools, government agencies, and other institutions more racially and socially inclusive.
In the weeks leading up to Trump’s return to power, major companies including Meta, McDonald’s and Walmart announced they would eliminate some or all of their diversity practices.
Jin Hee Lee, director of strategic initiatives at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, said there are big questions about exactly which DEI programs will end. The group said it was prepared to take all actions to prevent discrimination, including challenging the order in court.
Lee said banning “anything related to efforts to address inequality” would be a “substantive setback in terms of advancing racial justice.”
She added that while “any next president can set federal policy,” it would be embarrassing if employers and the government were allowed to “discriminate on the basis of race or gender.”
LGBTQ legal advocates respond
Jennifer C. Pizer, chief legal officer of civil rights group Lambda Legal, which sues on behalf of LGBTQ Americans, said she expects her group and others to sue the administration over the executive action.
“The president cannot, with the stroke of a pen, change the reality of who we are as a people and the fact that we exist as a community of people,” Pizer said. “We have the same right to equal protection as anyone else.”
Another lawyer and legal expert for the LGBTQ community said that while President Trump’s executive orders regarding gender identity will certainly be challenged in court, the administration can enforce them and potentially make changes immediately. Ta.
The expert, who requested anonymity to speak candidly about the executive order, said prisons, immigration shelters and rape shelters would immediately move transgender people into spaces aligned with their sex at birth, rather than their gender identity. He pointed out that there is a possibility. This means, for example, that trans women serving sentences in women’s prisons could be transferred to men’s prisons in the short term.
The attorney also said that transgender Americans, especially those whose federal documents such as passports have an X as a gender marker, may have difficulty re-entering the United States and may even be detained. Due to the nature of the virus, people need to be careful when leaving the country. border guard.
If Customs and Border Protection officials are unable to enter the person’s There is a possibility that it will become. The state asked for alternative identification documents to be issued,” the lawyer said.
Still, some changes, such as how government agencies handle health care for transgender Americans or how the Department of Housing and Urban Development protects trans tenants from eviction by landlords, require government agencies to go through processes such as It may take more time to implement because of the necessary requirements. It takes months, even years, to change the rules that govern them.
In some cases, legal experts said, “it will take time for the agency to issue a notice of proposed rule, review legally required comments, and address any deficiencies.” The final rule will then be published. ”
Once an anticipated legal challenge order is filed, the court may seek to block implementation of the order by issuing an injunction. But as court challenges progress, including the Supreme Court, which could potentially side with the Trump administration, the court could decide to allow the order to go into effect.
