Trump's hate-fueled war on trans people and their existence is a tragedy
These moves are about erasing trans people from existing publicly and wage war against LGBTQ+ Americans
During the first week-plus of Donald Trump’s return to the “Presidency”, anti-trans bully Trump has signed numerous executive orders harming trans Americans and their allies, along with the LGBTQ+ community more broadly.
On his first day in office on January 20th, Trump signed a bigoted executive order that recognizes male and female as the only genders recognized by the federal government and reinstates a ban on trans people serving in the military. On the 2nd day in office (and first full one) on January 21st, he signed an executive order that rejects passport changes to gender markers (but allows existing ones to remain). He also brazenly removed LGBTQ+ and HIV resources from government websites.
This is only the beginning of Trump’s war on trans people and their existence (and LGBTQ+ people in general), aided by Project 2025 and various right-wing organizations.
Katelyn Burns at MSNBC.com (01.24.2025):
With the stroke of a pen late Monday, freshly inaugurated President Donald Trump took trans rights back more than a decade by signing an executive order that, in essence, commands federal government agencies to stop recognizing the existence of trans people.
The executive order, titled “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” orders government officials to treat sex as “biological” and “determined at conception.” It specifically says imprisoned trans women are to be held in men’s prisons and that federal single-gender spaces are to be used according to so-called “biological sex.” And perhaps most importantly to working class trans people in the U.S., Trump ordered the State Department to ban the practice of assigning X as a gender marker on U.S. passports and barred gender marker changes going forward on passports and all federal identification.
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Trump is sending an early signal that trans people have no place in the America he is trying to build over the next four years. It is not the government of reasonable people with a handful of concerns that the trans rights movement maybe went a little too far. It’s arguably genocidal, according to the official definition of genocide.
This is not about trans athletes, this is not about transition care for minors, we’re looking at a future where trans Americans are detained by their own government just trying to come home from overseas. Are you not outraged by this?
Donald Trump’s latest declaration that “there are only two genders” isn’t just offensive, it’s scientifically embarrassing. In his ridiculously long-winded executive order titled “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government” (because subtlety is dead), he defines "female" as "a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the large reproductive cell," and "male" as "a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the small one." It’s almost impressive how he managed to fit so much wrong into one sentence.
Here’s the reality: all embryos start as female. Biologically, every embryo begins with undifferentiated gonads and phenotypically female structures. That’s why men have nipples! And it’s not just humans; this is true for all mammals. Only later, when hormones like testosterone step in, do male traits develop.
And here’s where Trump’s logic does a perfect faceplant. His definition ties “maleness” to producing sperm. But guess what? No one is born producing sperm. That process doesn’t even kick in until puberty. By his own logic, every single man spends the first chunk of their life as “not male.” In other words, his rigid definition inadvertently makes every man’s journey to maleness a literal transition. Congrats, guys, you’re all trans now.
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This could almost be funny if it weren’t so deeply harmful. This is the same administration that banned some transgender people from serving in the military, repealed Obama-era non-discrimination health care protections, and actively fought against employment rights for LGBTQ workers. Trump’s legacy isn’t just about enforcing binaries, it’s about erasing anyone who doesn’t fit into them.
Science is clear: sex and gender are way more complex than Trump’s fragile worldview can handle.
Arwa Mahdawi wrote for The Guardian on how 47’s anti-trans executive order inadvertently made Donald Trump the first female “President” (01.25.2025):
Has the moment we’ve all been waiting for arrived? After both Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris failed to break the biggest glass ceiling, has a woman finally ascended to the highest office in America? Legally speaking, is Donald J Trump the first female president?
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“‘Female’ means a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the large reproductive cell,” reads the order. “‘Male’ means a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the small reproductive cell.”
Despite Trump’s decree that sex is “immutable”, the wording of his executive order left some room for interpretation. Indeed, some critics noted that because the undifferentiated genitalia that males and females share very early in fetal development are “phenotypically female”, you could argue he just made everyone legally female.
“[Trump] just declared everyone a woman from conception, based on the language of the executive order,” Delaware representative Sarah McBride, the first openly transgender person elected to the US House of Representatives, told the Independent, for example.
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It would be extremely satisfying if the answer to that question was an unequivocal yes. But the more accurate answer is: No, although there is room to argue that the executive order decrees all humans, including Trump, are non-binary. Still, you can see why so many people came to the conclusion that the executive order was assigning everyone as female. The confusing and vague executive order underscores just how complex sex is.
Most scientists now reject the idea that sex is strictly binary. The likes of Nature, possibly one of the most prestigious scientific journals in the world, has noted that “the research and medical community now sees sex as more complex than male and female”.
Tuberville took issue with the Christian leader’s support for all children.
“These ‘trans children’ should live in fear of their parents,” Tuberville wrote on X, “and the sick people that enable those ‘guardians.’”
“It’s child abuse. An absolute disgrace.”
Tuberville’s comments are based on the anti-LGBTQ+ myth that no one is actually LGBTQ+, that everyone is straight and cisgender until LGBTQ+ adults turn them gay or trans. This notion is false; homosexuality and trans identity are both natural parts of human diversity.
Moreover, there is no evidence that a person who is not LGBTQ+ can be turned LGBTQ+ by their parents.
Madison Pauly at Mother Jones on how Trump’s “two genders” executive order is also a gateway to the radical fetal personhood agenda (01.23.2025):
The order is scant on details about how the new definitions will be applied, nor does it explain how sex will be measured for the policy purposes it does outline, such as determining which gender marker appears on a person’s passport or separating incarcerated people by sex. But the lack of specificity in no way limits its potentially dire consequences for transgender people, who face extremely high rates of discrimination and violence, including sexual violence in prison. Having a passport that matches one’s gender identity or expression, for instance, is a crucial safety measure when applying for jobs, crossing a border, or even showing ID in a grocery store line.
Yet Trump’s new sex definitions affect not only transgender people, whose gender identity will no longer be acknowledged by executive branch agencies, but also everyone else who may soon find themselves classified according to whether they were destined at conception to produce eggs or sperm.
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For one thing, lawyers fighting for the rights of pregnant people say the executive order’s definitions of male and female advance an anti-abortion agenda by defining sex as starting “at conception.” This is the language of “fetal personhood”—a favorite theory of the anti-abortion movement that maintains an embryo is a person with full legal rights from the moment of fertilization, when egg meets sperm. The theory has been used in efforts to end access to in vitro fertilization, prosecute people who have miscarriages for manslaughter, and ban certain forms of birth control.
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Agencies have been ordered to report back on their progress in implementing the new sex definitions within 120 days. Much remains unknown about what policies they’ll produce, whether they’ll target pregnant people as well as trans people, and how the courts will rule on the various legal challenges sure to be filed each step of the way.
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But the executive order says these definitions should be used to determine which sex marker should go on a passport or whether a prisoner should be incarcerated in a men’s or a women’s prison.
This is what’s so stupid about it, but also what’s so dangerous. What is the enforcement plan? Are we going to test people’s gonads to see what type of gametes they produce? Because if the obsession is at the level of gametes, the tests are much more invasive than a sex chromosome test.
Nor will there be an actual way to logically enforce it, because it’s an illogical order. I think what will happen is it will be basically about punishing people in the worst way possible, treating people as poorly as possible, and creating as much discord and mayhem as possible.
This is mostly going to be around one sex category: the female sex category. They will only be doing this toward anybody who might fall into the woman category or might self-report as being in the woman category. I think Trump, in whatever terrible language is available to him, is trying to control women and control people he perceives to be in the woman category. A lot of this is keeping the category of women “pure”—and also, obviously, about doing immense harm to trans people.
Late Monday night, anti-trans bigot Tyrant 47 signed an anti-American, divisive, hateful, and bigoted executive order harming military readiness by banning trans people from serving in the military just like what he did his first term, and his henchman Pete Hegseth will do much of the process of implementing it. The EO mandates forced misgendering policies and hatefully frames trans identity as “selfish” and “false” with the end goal of erasing trans identity in the military.
Erin Reed at Erin In The Morning (01.27.2025):
Late Monday evening, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that effectively lays the groundwork for a sweeping ban on the 15,000 transgender troops currently serving in the United States military. The order, delegating much of its implementation to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, declares that being transgender is “incompatible with service.” It further mandates that all transgender personnel must be misgendered in official military communication and policy. Most notably, the order frames transgender identity as inherently at odds with “a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life.”
The executive order, titled “Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness,” claims its purpose is to “protect unit cohesion” from “ideologies harmful” to it—explicitly targeting the service of transgender troops. It asserts that the medical needs of transgender individuals are incompatible with military service, despite evidence that treatments like hormone therapy result in no operational downtime. Aware of this contradiction, the order offers an additional justification for the ban, framing transgender individuals as inherently “selfish” and “false.”
Tuesday afternoon, anti-trans bully Donald Trump signed a wickedly bigoted and transphobic executive order banning federal funding and support for gender-affirming care for minors under 19. This hateful executive order contradicts many medical associations and was premised on the false basis of “protecting” children from “mutilation” and “sterilization.”
This extreme EO will impact hospitals, health insurance, and more. This is yet another attack on blue states, which should consider defying this nonsense EO and potentially consider secession.
Christopher Wiggins at The Advocate (01.28.2025):
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Tuesday to restrict federal funding and support for gender-affirming care for transgender minors and some adults, which he described as harmful and irreversible. The order, titled “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation,” targets the use of puberty blockers, hormone therapies, and surgeries for anyone under 19, referring to them as “chemical and surgical mutilation.” It directs federal agencies to rescind policies supporting such treatments, withdraw funding from institutions that provide them, and enforce existing laws limiting access to these procedures. “Across the country today, medical professionals are maiming and sterilizing a growing number of impressionable children under the radical and false claim that adults can change a child’s sex through a series of irreversible medical interventions,” the order states. “This dangerous trend will be a stain on our Nation’s history, and it must end.”
The order requires the Department of Health and Human Services to review and revise medical guidelines related to gender-affirming care. It specifically singles out the World Professional Association for Transgender Health and its Standards of Care, calling them lacking in “scientific integrity.” HHS is instructed to publish a review of the existing literature on gender dysphoria and develop alternative guidelines, while agencies like the Department of Justice are tasked with investigating providers and enforcing stricter legal measures against what the order terms “deceptive practices.”
In addition to limiting federal funding, the order directs the Department of Defense to exclude coverage for gender-affirming care under TRICARE, the military’s health care system, and requires the Office of Personnel Management to negotiate reduced premiums by eliminating coverage for pediatric transgender treatments under federal employee health plans. Whistleblower protections are also mandated for those opposing gender-affirming treatments within health care systems.
Daniel Villarreal at LGBTQ Nation (01.29.2025):
The order also instructs the HHS to disregard any rights to gender-affirming care upheld in Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA); the March 2022 HHS Notice and Guidance on Gender Affirming Care, Civil Rights and Patient Privacy; the 11th Revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) and the 5th edition of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5).
It also instructs HHS to restrict Medicare, Medicaid, Tricare, and other federal employee health insurance plans from covering the aforementioned methods of gender-affirming care.
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The executive order directs the Department of Justice (DOJ) to “prioritize investigations and take appropriate action to end child-abusive practices by so-called sanctuary States” with policies protecting those seeking gender-affirming care for minors. The order instructs the DOJ to use pre-existing laws against “parental kidnapping” to prosecute adults who transport their children into sanctuary states.
Currently, 16 states and Washington D.C. provide sanctuary to block out-of-state investigations against parents seeking gender-affirming care for their trans children. The order instructs the attorney general to “issue new guidance protecting whistleblowers” who violate patient confidentiality by reporting doctors who may be providing hormonal care to patients they suspect of being trans.
The order also instructs the DOJ to enforce laws against “female genital mutilation” (a term that the executive order doesn’t define) and to extend the time in which children and the parents of children can sue those providers of gender-affirming care. This last provision would allow disapproving parents to sue doctors, even if their child is satisfied with the care they received.
The order also directs the DOJ to use laws against false advertising to prosecute any entity that may be misleading the public about the long-term effects of gender-affirming care.
John Casey for The Advocate on the GAC EO’s impact on trans kids (01.29.2025):
Trans kids are not an issue – they are loving, caring, breathing humans, and their lives are being put at severe risk.
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What’s baffling is that transphobic people like Trump want the public to believe that a child goes to school one a day as a boy, and comes home as a girl. He treats it as if it’s this spur-of-the-moment decision that is not thought out – that’s how Trump operates, but not caring and thoughtful parents of trans youth, who take the time to understand and work with their child, and to do what’s best for them
That’s why this care often includes puberty blockers, which temporarily pause puberty to give young people and their families time to explore their options, and hormone therapies, which help align a person’s physical characteristics with their gender identity. These interventions are reversible and carefully monitored and are administered with the guidance of trained medical professionals. They aren’t performed at schools in one day.
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Opponents of gender-affirming care often cite concerns about regret or irreversible changes. Yet the data tells a different story. The rate of regret following gender-affirming surgeries is exceedingly low, ranging from 0.3% to 3%, according to a 2021 review published in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.
Moreover, surgeries are rarely performed on minors. Puberty blockers and hormone therapies, the treatments most often accessed by transgender youth, are either reversible or highly customizable based on the individual’s needs.
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By restricting access to gender-affirming care, Trump is inserting himself into deeply personal family decisions. Healthcare choices should be made by patients, their families, and their doctors, not politicians, and certainly not like ignorant people like Trump.
Parents of transgender children are already navigating an emotional and complex journey to support their kids. They do not need the additional stress of government interference. Decisions about medical treatments should prioritize the health and well-being of the child, guided by science and compassion, not political agendas.
The harm caused by this policy will reverberate far beyond the individual children who are denied care, and it’s likely to affect a generation of our youth in ways we can’t even fathom.
On Wednesday, anti-trans bully Tyrant 47 signs a hateful executive order attacking LGBTQ+ (esp. trans, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming) students, teachers, and staff, and LGBTQ+/trans-inclusive school policies by threatening to pull funding from schools that protect LGBTQ+ students.
The EO mandates student safety-harming forced outing policies, bars trans students from playing on sports teams and using bathrooms and locker rooms congruent with their gender identity, mandating nationwide don’t say gay or trans policies, and disallows social transition (by mandating arrests of trans-friendly teachers and school staff).
Alex Cooper at The Advocate (01.29.2025):
President Donald Trump signed a new executive order Wednesday, banning schools that receive federal funding from allowing students to identify with the name and pronouns that best match their gender identity. It also bars the use of bathrooms and lockers by trans kids that best fit their gender identity and bans them from playing on the most appropriate sports team. Advocates say the order forces schools to deny the existence of transgender people.
The order specifically calls out social transitioning of transgender students in public schools. Social transitioning may include things like coming out as trans or nonbinary, going by a different name, dressing in a way that aligns better with a person's gender identity, using a different type of voice, and using pronouns that better reflect a person's identity.
Trump's latest attack on transgender youth also targets the schools, teachers, counselors, and staff who support them. It requires parents of students to be notified if students request to use a different name or pronoun, potentially outing the student. Trans rights activists note this could put these students at risk of harm.
On Wednesday, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) released a memo ordering federal agencies to end support for pro-trans initiatives. This memo is part of Trump’s war on trans Americans.
Erica L. Green at New York Times (01.29.2025):
The Trump administration has ordered agencies to shut down programs, grants and other initiatives that “promote or reflect gender ideology,” and that employees who work on them be placed on administrative leave, in the latest action to execute the president’s charge to root out “woke” ideology from the federal government.
In a memo from the Office of Personnel Management on Wednesday, agency heads were instructed to take sweeping actions stemming from an executive order that President Trump signed on Jan. 20 aimed at “defending women from gender ideology extremism” and “restoring biological truth to the federal government.”
Trump’s extreme prejudiced and un-Christian policies harming trans people serve one purpose: to erase trans existence from public spaces.
Blue states should disobey his unlawful orders, especially the gender-affirming care and schools orders. Blue state secession may need to be on the table to protect trans rights. 🏳️⚧️