A new executive order signed by President Trump rescinds pro-gender identity policies under the Biden administration as it declares the new administration recognizes only two sexes.
“It is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female,” the executive order reads. “These sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality. Under my direction, the Executive Branch will enforce all sex-protective laws to promote this reality.”
Trump signed it on his first day in office, fulfilling a promise he made during the campaign. It is titled plainly: “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism And Restoring Biological Truth To The Federal Government.”
The executive order defines “men,” “women,” “male,” and “female” according to biology and orders agencies within the federal government to take “appropriate action to ensure that intimate spaces designated for women, girls, or females (or for men, boys, or males) are designated by sex and not identity.”
It also orders his staff to write a proposed bill to Congress to “codify the definitions in this order” — a crucial step for supporters, as executive orders can be overturned by future administrations.
“Across the country, ideologues who deny the biological reality of sex have increasingly used legal and other socially coercive means to permit men to self-identify as women and gain access to intimate single-sex spaces and activities designed for women, from women’s domestic abuse shelters to women’s workplace showers,” the text reads. “This is wrong. Efforts to eradicate the biological reality of sex fundamentally attack women by depriving them of their dignity, safety, and well-being.”
The words “women” and “girls” refer to “adult and juvenile human females, respectively,” it says. Further, female “means a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the large reproductive cell.” The text also defines “men” and “boys.”
“Each agency and all Federal employees shall enforce laws governing sex-based rights, protections, opportunities, and accommodations to protect men and women as biologically distinct sexes,” the order says.
It orders the Attorney General and Secretary of Homeland Security to “ensure that males are not detained in women’s prisons or housed in women’s detention centers.” Further, the executive order requires government-issued identification documents, including passports and visas, to reflect the biology-based definition.
Significantly, the executive order overturns the Biden administration’s guidance that had interpreted the word “sex” within Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to apply to gender identity.
“Federal funds shall not be used to promote gender ideology,” the executive order says. “Each agency shall assess grant conditions and grantee preferences and ensure grant funds do not promote gender ideology.”
The executive order challenges what it describes as “ongoing and purposeful attack against the ordinary and longstanding use and understanding of biological and scientific terms, replacing the immutable biological reality of sex with an internal, fluid, and subjective sense of self unmoored from biological facts.”
“Invalidating the true and biological category of ‘woman’ improperly transforms laws and policies designed to protect sex-based opportunities into laws and policies that undermine them, replacing longstanding, cherished legal rights and values with an identity-based, inchoate social concept,” the order says. “Accordingly, my Administration will defend women’s rights and protect freedom of conscience by using clear and accurate language and policies that recognize women are biologically female, and men are biologically male.”
Photo Credit: ©The White House Flickr
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
Listen to Michael’s Podcast! He is the host of Crosswalk Talk, a podcast where he talks with Christian movie stars, musicians, directors, and more. Hear how famous Christian figures keep their faith a priority in Hollywood and discover the best Christian movies, books, television, and other entertainment. You can find Crosswalk Talk on LifeAudio.com, or subscribe on Apple or Spotify so you never miss an interview that will be sure to encourage your faith.
Originally published January 21, 2025.
