Donald Trump was re-elected as the President of the United States and officially stepped into office on January 20, 2025. His first agenda was signing an executive order against transgender, nonbinary, and intersex people, which discriminates against their entire identity.
The executive order is titled “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.” The order states the definition of “sex” and what it is to be a man and a woman based on the conclusion that “the sex that produces the large reproductive cell” is female and “the sex that produces the small reproductive cell” is male. The order also states that designated sex on passports or any identification documents must “accurately reflect the holder’s sex,” as defined by the executive order.
Further, the order also mandates the term “sex” be redefined across federal government agencies, including but not limited to prisons, bathrooms, sports participation, health care, etc. This could potentially cause more harm than good, risking sexual assault and abuse from staff and fellow inmates, false accusations from citizens, or refusal of proper health care for some individuals.
Not only does this executive order target people who are transgender, nonbinary, and intersex, but it could potentially target cisgender people, too, by questioning if a young girl is feminine enough to be considered “female” in the eyes of the states. This can have irreparable damage and can cause unnecessary trauma, especially for youth who don’t necessarily conform to gender stereotypes.
The LGBTQ+ community has called out the ridiculousness of the order and pointed out how it could affect not just them but everyone. This is just the start of a discrimination war the President has enacted.
The fight for anti-discrimination and freedom of expression has long been treacherous. What felt like progress over the years has taken us back decades with President Trump’s new executive order. Now more than ever, minorities are trying to fight back in hopes of ending the discrimination war against them.
