WASHINGTON, DC–In one of his first acts as President on January 21, Donald Trump signed an executive order banning any gender that is not male or female, according to the ACLU.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) stated the executive order reads, “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 goes on, the ACLU added, to define a “man” and “woman” using biological terms like the latter belongs “to the sex that produces the large reproductive cell,” and the former “produces the small reproductive cell.”
As the ACLU explains, the implications for this order are still unclear for many agencies that have previously recognized non-cis genders, transgender individuals, and intersex folks.
For instance, the ACLU noted the new dilemma for document-issuing servicers who can no longer provide passports, updated birth certificates, driver’s licenses, and official documentation to transgender people in the gender they identify with, forcibly outing them, or in some cases leaving them without documents at all.
The Trump administration has since clarified the order, stating that the policy will not retroactively affect those who already have a passport, visa, or any other documentation, but they simply cannot acquire new ones with the gender they identify with, writes the ACLU.
Trump’s new policy also affects the 2,000+ transgender population in federal custody, according to the ACLU, requiring all of them to be moved into prisons and detention centers of the gender they were assigned to at birth.
The ACLU writes that this ignores the guidelines of the Prison Rape Elimination Act and “puts them at a severely heightened risk of sexual assault and abuse by other incarcerated persons and prison staff,” as well as “withdraw[s] critical health care from trans people in federal prison.”
This order comes amid a Supreme Court decision back in 2020, “affirming that discrimination against someone because they are LGBTQ is sex discrimination under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act,” as explained in the 6-3 Bostock v. Clayton County ruling, reports the ACLU.
In the same vein, President Trump also withdrew former President Biden’s executive order that enforced the anti-discrimination protections reinforced in the Bostock case, according to the ACLU.
While the target of the executive order appears to be trans folks, said the ACLU, intersex individuals and those with differences in their sex characteristics are also facing the consequences of this policy with the narrow definitions of gender that it provides.
The ACLU warned it is still unclear how far this order will extend, such as to encompass public schools, workplace protections, gender-affirming health care, and more.
Seems the simplest first step is define and agree that “sex” is one thing and “gender identity” is another. Then the difficult conversations come as to when and where each applies. Of course transgender persons deserve dignity and the right to live as they identify. Trump takes this too far, almost in a Beth Bourne sort of direction. I’m glad Trump walked back the passport change requirement, but is that even necessary to change for future persons? Is that really an important issue? The other end of this is Biden took it too far the other direction, and instead of correcting, Trump snapped back. I align most on this issue with transgender press person with the Free Press Brianna Wu, who has a very nuanced view on the subject, feeling that decades of progress for transgender rights has been ruined by the modern far-left ideology on the subject, and then the subsequent backlash. Rather than try to explain paragraphs of nuances, Brianna explains her views in the recent Free Press podcast “26 executive orders”. Sorry I don’t have a time stamp, but the whole podcast is worth listening to. The Free Press invites on guests with differing points of view who disagree respectfully which is why I like their work.
Let me ask you this – in your view where did the left push the issue too far?
I still live in a blue town and I’m not going to voluntarily step on a landmine by using a wrong word or being misinterpreted on this particular issue because the passion and anger are so high. I will say I DON’T fall somewhere between Beth and Anoosh, rather I am somewhere completely different as I reject their entire paradigm. I will also say I didn’t hear one thing in Brianna Wu’s words that I disagreed with (except her use of one pejorative, towards the end of this segment, for what she calls ‘transgender ideologues’ ). She also brought up a few issues I’d never thought of or heard discussed before. I did go to the podcast and found the link [ https://www.thefp.com/p/26-executive-orders-tiktoks-future-b20 ] from about 21 to 29 mins, should you be interested. I don’t expect that you and many others in your audience will agree with some of it, but these are the views of a transgender person and someone I respect on other issues.
This is not a major issue amongst issues in my areas of interest — I’m more into transportation, land-use, the effects of so-called ‘homelessness’ policy on society, historical preservation and environmentalism. But her words rang true for me. Then again, I doubt you and many others in your audience would agree with some black conservatives who’s words also ring true for me. It is so strange to me how viciously some on the far left attack black conservatives as if they were betraying their people, when to me there is nothing more beautiful and liberating then society having advanced to the point that people of color are comfortable with choosing their own politics. And to me, nothing more racist than attacking someone for doing just that.
Alan says: “Seems the simplest first step is define and agree that “sex” is one thing and “gender identity” is another.”
Is it that simple – especially when considering medical interventions (which allow someone to gain/lose biological aspects)?
Then there’s the legal aspects (which is probably why the newest Supreme Court justice didn’t want to answer the question).