Deplorable:
It was no secret to transgender Americans that the Trump administration was planning to roll back anti-discrimination protections provided under the Biden administration. Before his latest election, President Trump made gender identity a focal point of his campaign, and many Democrats believe the strategy helped him win.
But in the first eight days of his term, President Trump has signed three executive orders limiting transgender rights. The breadth of the areas they cover and starkness of language that appears to impugn the character of anyone whose gender identity does not match the sex on their birth certificate have stunned even transgender people who had been bracing.
“The rapid escalation of these assaults on the trans community, in just over a week of his presidency, paints a grim picture of what lies ahead,” Erin Reed, a transgender activist and journalist, wrote in a Substack post.
In his first gender-related order, Mr. Trump instructed government agencies to ensure that federally funded institutions recognize people as girls, boys, men or women based solely on their “immutable biological classification.” It included a specific provision requiring the Bureau of Prisons to house transgender women in prisons designated for men and to stop providing prisoners with medical treatments related to gender transitions.
On Monday, Mr. Trump directed the Pentagon to re-evaluate whether transgender troops should be permitted to serve. And on Tuesday evening, he issued an order taking steps to end gender-transition medical treatments for anyone under 19, directing agencies to curtail puberty-suppressing medication, hormone therapy and surgeries.
Court challenges of the first two orders are already underway, and trans advocates said on Tuesday evening that they would challenge the order on medical treatment as well.
“We will not allow this dangerous, sweeping and unconstitutional order to stand,” said Chase Strangio, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union who was the first openly trans lawyer to appear before the Supreme Court last year in a case about medical treatments for minors.
Transgender people account for less than 1 percent of the adult population in the United States, according to an estimate from the Williams Institute at U.C.L.A., which performs research on the L.G.B.T.Q. population. Polling shows that Americans have mixed views on the inclusion of transgender girls and women in sports and whether minors should be allowed to obtain medical treatment to transition.
On social media, conservative activists struck a celebratory tone.
“Dear trans activists,” the account called Libs of TikTok posted on X. “You lost. We won.”
In interviews and on social media in recent days, transgender advocates have responded in strong terms. Many suggested that the language of the order aimed at limiting transgender people from military service reflected anti-trans bigotry rather than substantive policy concerns.
“Adoption of a gender identity inconsistent with an individual’s sex conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life,” the executive order reads.
Nicolas Talbott, 31, of Akron, Ohio, a transgender second lieutenant in the U.S. Army who is a plaintiff in a legal challenge to the order, said that “this time not only are they attacking our ability to do our jobs, now they’re trying to attack our character and the core of our being.”
The language appeared to surprise even some conservative commentators.
“Trump just signed an Executive Order saying transgender individuals are too mentally ill to be soldiers, and too lacking in honor and discipline in their personal lives,” Richard Hanania, a conservative writer and podcaster, wrote in a post on X. “Really.”
Brianna Wu, a transgender woman and a Democratic strategist who has criticized some aspects of the trans rights movement, such as the inclusion of trans women in women’s sports, said the series of orders would push trans people out of public life.
“If you’re asking me if I’m a natal male, I have no issue about admitting biology,” Ms. Wu said in an interview. “The question is not, ‘Are trans women biological men?’ The question is, ‘Do trans women deserve dignity as your fellow citizens?’
“It’s disheartening to see the Trump administration come down so hard on the other side.”
It was no secret to transgender Americans that the Trump administration was planning to roll back anti-discrimination protections provided under the Biden administration. Before his latest election, President Trump made gender identity a focal point of his campaign, and many Democrats believe the strategy helped him win.
But in the first eight days of his term, President Trump has signed three executive orders limiting transgender rights. The breadth of the areas they cover and starkness of language that appears to impugn the character of anyone whose gender identity does not match the sex on their birth certificate have stunned even transgender people who had been bracing.
“The rapid escalation of these assaults on the trans community, in just over a week of his presidency, paints a grim picture of what lies ahead,” Erin Reed, a transgender activist and journalist, wrote in a Substack post.
In his first gender-related order, Mr. Trump instructed government agencies to ensure that federally funded institutions recognize people as girls, boys, men or women based solely on their “immutable biological classification.” It included a specific provision requiring the Bureau of Prisons to house transgender women in prisons designated for men and to stop providing prisoners with medical treatments related to gender transitions.
On Monday, Mr. Trump directed the Pentagon to re-evaluate whether transgender troops should be permitted to serve. And on Tuesday evening, he issued an order taking steps to end gender-transition medical treatments for anyone under 19, directing agencies to curtail puberty-suppressing medication, hormone therapy and surgeries.
Court challenges of the first two orders are already underway, and trans advocates said on Tuesday evening that they would challenge the order on medical treatment as well.
“We will not allow this dangerous, sweeping and unconstitutional order to stand,” said Chase Strangio, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union who was the first openly trans lawyer to appear before the Supreme Court last year in a case about medical treatments for minors.
Transgender people account for less than 1 percent of the adult population in the United States, according to an estimate from the Williams Institute at U.C.L.A., which performs research on the L.G.B.T.Q. population. Polling shows that Americans have mixed views on the inclusion of transgender girls and women in sports and whether minors should be allowed to obtain medical treatment to transition.
On social media, conservative activists struck a celebratory tone.
“Dear trans activists,” the account called Libs of TikTok posted on X. “You lost. We won.”
In interviews and on social media in recent days, transgender advocates have responded in strong terms. Many suggested that the language of the order aimed at limiting transgender people from military service reflected anti-trans bigotry rather than substantive policy concerns.
“Adoption of a gender identity inconsistent with an individual’s sex conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life,” the executive order reads.
Nicolas Talbott, 31, of Akron, Ohio, a transgender second lieutenant in the U.S. Army who is a plaintiff in a legal challenge to the order, said that “this time not only are they attacking our ability to do our jobs, now they’re trying to attack our character and the core of our being.”
The language appeared to surprise even some conservative commentators.
“Trump just signed an Executive Order saying transgender individuals are too mentally ill to be soldiers, and too lacking in honor and discipline in their personal lives,” Richard Hanania, a conservative writer and podcaster, wrote in a post on X. “Really.”
Brianna Wu, a transgender woman and a Democratic strategist who has criticized some aspects of the trans rights movement, such as the inclusion of trans women in women’s sports, said the series of orders would push trans people out of public life.
“If you’re asking me if I’m a natal male, I have no issue about admitting biology,” Ms. Wu said in an interview. “The question is not, ‘Are trans women biological men?’ The question is, ‘Do trans women deserve dignity as your fellow citizens?’
“It’s disheartening to see the Trump administration come down so hard on the other side.”
