President Donald Trump is expected to release a series of executive actions on Monday that will affect transgender Americans, including an executive order declaring that the US government will only recognize the gender of a person assigned at birth, Trump officials said in a press conference.
The executive orders Trump will sign on Monday, his first day in office, include a ban on using federal funds for programs that recognize people who identify as transgender, according to Trump officials.
“The policy of the United States is to recognize two genders, male and female. They’re genders that aren’t changeable, and they’re based on basic reality and indisputable reality,” a White House official said on Monday’s call before Trump’s inauguration.
Trump’s executive actions are expected to reverse the 2023 Biden administration’s policies related to the treatment of transgender people in the federal workplace.
Donald Trump is sworn in as the 47th President of the United States by Chief Justice John Roberts as Melania Trump holds a Bible in the Capitol Rotunda during the 60th Presidential Inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025.
Morris Gash/Pool/AP
Politicians include the Biden administration orientation On Gender and Inclusion of Public Officials, which was issued on March 31, 2023, for Trans Day of Visibility, the Office of Personnel Management updated its guidelines on gender inclusion in the workplace, including “ensuring that all federal employees are gender-appropriate.” identities accurately reflected and identified in the workplace.’
The Biden administration orientation it also directed federal agencies to “take steps to establish or increase training programs for employees, managers, and leadership on gender identity and inclusion in the federal workplace.”
According to Trump officials, Trump’s executive actions would reverse many policies put in place by the Biden administration, including withholding federal money from schools and universities if they don’t follow certain rules to protect trans students from harassment.
In addition, entities such as prisons and shelters that receive federal money would also have to designate “single-sex” spaces, White House officials said, assigning people to certain areas based on the gender they were assigned at birth.
President Donald Trump delivers remarks after being sworn in as the 47th president of the United States during the inauguration ceremony in the rotunda of the United States Capitol on January 20, 2025.
Shawn Thew/Pool/Reuters
Trump wants to cancel the 2022 Biden administration rule that was made possible by the US State Department. Individuals applying for a US passport may select an “X” to mark their gendersaid the managers.
The move, which was designed to accommodate non-binary, intersex and gender non-conforming people, was announced by then Secretary of State Antony Blinken on March 31, 2022, Transgender Day of Visibility.
“The State Department has reached another milestone in our work to better serve all US citizens, regardless of their gender identity,” Blinken said in a statement at the time.
The Human Rights Campaign, the leading LGBTQ+ advocacy group, told ABC News in a statement that while the group has not seen the text of the executive orders, HRC is committed to working to help fight these actions in the courts and in Congress. That LGBTQ+ people are protected.”
“Every person deserves to be treated with dignity and respect in all areas of their lives,” HRC President Kelley Robinson said in a statement to ABC News on Monday. “No one should be subjected to continuous discrimination, harassment and humiliation where they work, where they go to school or where they get health care. But today’s executive actions targeting the LGBTQ+ community serve no other purpose than to harm our families and our communities.”
“Any attack on our rights threatens the rights of any person who doesn’t fit into a narrow view of how they should look and act,” Robinson added. “The incumbent administration is trying to divide our communities in an attempt to forget what makes us strong. But we refuse to back down or be intimidated.”
