President Donald Trump signed an executive order declaring it is official U.S. policy that there are only two sexes, an incoming White House official told reporters Monday.
“It is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female. These sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality,” the order states. “Under my direction, the Executive Branch will enforce all sex-protective laws to promote this reality.”
During his inaugural speech, Trump referenced the upcoming order saying, “As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the U.S. government that there are only genders: male and female.”
In practice, this means that the U.S. Department of State and the Department of Homeland Security will only issue passports and visas with either the male or female indicators, and that the federal government will not provide funds, grants or contracts to any group or individual “promoting gender ideology.”
The new order will also ban taxpayer funds from being used for gender-affirming care. This became a big issue in the 2024 general election, when the Trump campaign spent millions of dollars on anti-trans ads, including one about Kamala Harris supporting the federal government paying for gender-affirming surgeries for incarcerated people. The government pays for the health care of everyone who is in a federal prison.
The attorney general will ensure that this executive order will protect the rights of people who have been asked to use preferred pronouns and believe that’s a violation of their freedom of speech and religion, an official said on a Monday morning call.
Issuing such an executive order as one of his first official moves is a culmination of years of the right being laser-focussed on transgender people in the United States. Through fearmongering about health care for trans people, legislating which bathrooms trans people can use, banning books in classrooms and libraries, and conflating the LGBTQ+ community with sexual abusers, erasing trans people from public life has become one of the biggest priorities for Republicans.