President Donald Trump has targeted transgender and nonbinary people with a series of executive orders since he returned to office. He has done it with strong language. That's a dramatic reversal of the policies of former President Joe Biden's administration — and of major medical organizations — that supported gender-affirming care.
American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Sruti Swaminathan said that to be put into effect, provisions of the orders should first go through federal rulemaking procedures, which can be years long and include the chance for public comment. On Trump's first day back in office, he issued a sweeping order that signaled a big change in how his administration would deal with transgender people and their rights.
It questions their existence by saying the government would recognize only two unchangeable sexes: female and male. The stated purpose is to protect women. Federal agencies have been quick to comply. Andrea Lucas, the acting chair of the U. The Bureau of Prisons stopped reporting the number of transgender incarcerated people and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention removed lessons on building supportive school environments for transgender and nonbinary students.
In the order calling for a new federal definition of the sexes, Trump included some specific instances in which policy should be changed, including on passports. The State Department promptly stopped granting requests for new or updated passports with gender markers that don't conform with the new definition. Trump's initial order called for transgender women in federal custody to be moved to men's prisons.
Warbelow, from Human Rights Campaign, said her organization has received reports from lawyers that some have been. The Federal Bureau of Prisons did not immediately respond to requests for information about such moves. There have been at least two lawsuits trying to block the policy. In one, a federal judge has said a transgender woman in a Massachusetts prison should be housed with the general population of a woman's prison and continue to receive gender-affirming medical care for now.
