by Cliff Vacin ‘25

Over the past few months, five executive orders have been signed by President Donald Trump about transgender individuals. Following up on prominent campaign themes when Trump was running for president, the orders employ such phrasing as “gender ideology extremism,” “discriminatory equity ideology,” and “chemical/surgical mutilation.”

On February 5 President Trump passed multiple executive orders regarding the status of transgender individuals, most notably transgender juveniles in female sports. One of the President’s most recent executive orders, titled Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports, relates to prohibiting transgender women from using women’s locker rooms and participating in school-related female-only sports teams. Although this executive order mainly focused on collegiate transgender athletes, some states changed their policies for public K-12 schools to follow the order. A similar bill was passed in the House of Representatives but was blocked by the Senate in March.

Another executive order issued by Trump titled Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation set forward boundaries that “children—defined by the administration as individuals under the age of 19–will no longer be able to transition physically. This order has been temporarily blocked by a federal judge, and since then, the ban has been additionally extended. States have had the ability to dictate whether or not the youth in their state would be able to physically transition. Physical transition accessible to minors is quite limited; individuals may only access hormone therapy at 16 with parental permission, and sometimes a year or two earlier if they are deemed a danger to themself due to gender dysphoria.

Trump’s executive orders do not only limit adolescents, however, as Trump targets certain legal rights that transgender adults possess. One of the executive orders passed on Trump’s first day in office was Initial Recissions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions;  which sought to remove many anti-discrimination orders made during Joe Biden’s presidency, including ones that protected transgender individuals from workplace and housing discrimination. Trump’s executive order entails that individuals will be able to be refused services for housing and be fired from their jobs solely based on their gender identity.

Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government was an executive order signed on Trump’s first day in office. Focused on gender markers in documentation, this executive order stated that individuals align with their biological sex and that there were only two genders. The Social Security Office has also banned individuals from changing their sex on federal documents. Some people reported having their documents taken and were not returned.
On February 27, the order Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness stated that the United States military would now exclude transgender individuals, categorizing gender dysphoria under mental conditions such as bipolar disorder, eating disorders, and suicidality. After two cases were filed against the executive order, a judge barred all military officials from following the new policy, effectively placing a temporary ban until the courts could rule further.

The executive orders at the federal level follow actions by many conservative states. More than half of the states do not provide full rights for individuals to transition. Georgia, for example, has a proposed bill banning the funding of gender-affirming care for adults. At least 10 states have stated that their government would seek to define “male” and “female” in their constitution to align with their biological sex, along with setting standards to segregate bathrooms and locker rooms by biological sex. In February, Iowa’s governer signed a bill that removed gender identity from state civil rights protections.