Trump Signs Executive Order “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to Federal Government”

The sweeping order, which defines sex as binary and fixed and seeks to exclude biological males from women's prisons and rape shelters, will inevitably be challenged by multiple lawsuits.

Newly reinstalled as president, Donald Trump started signing executive orders immediately.

The second Trump administration is only a few hours old, but already has sought to wield its power to undo throughout federal law what it refers to as “gender ideology.” The gender-identity-focused executive order Donald Trump signed today, brashly entitled “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to Federal Government,” seeks to eradicate acknowledgement of the existence of transgender people throughout the federal government. In its place, the administration seeks to instal a rigid definition of sex as binary and fixed at conception and otherwise to banish the notion of gender identity, and even the word “gender.”

The implications of such an order are profound. It could impact transgender people’s presence in prisons, rape shelters and schools and how their sex is designated on their passports. But the order will inevitably be challenged by a raft of lawsui…