01-29-2025
A new executive order (EO) directs the federal government to recognize only two sexes, male and female. The “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government” order purportedly protects women from men who “self-identify as women”; it precludes acknowledging transgender individuals. The order prevents access for transgender women to spaces designated for women, like domestic abuse shelters and workplace showers.
This EO states that the “erasure of sex in language and policy has a corrosive impact not just on women but on the validity of the entire American system” and that the “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.” Pushing against the idea of transgender individuals, the EO calls “gender ideology” a false construct that men can identify as and become women or vice versa. Federal agencies must use the term “sex” and not “gender.” They must also designate “intimate” spaces for either men or women.
The attorney general will issue guidance to ensure the “freedom to express the binary nature of sex and the right to single-sex spaces in workplaces and federally funded entities covered by the Civil Rights Act of 1964.” Moreover, the EO directs the DOL, the EEOC, and other agencies to “prioritize investigations and litigation to enforce the rights and freedoms” identified in the order. The new EEOC acting chair said that “defending biological and binary” sex is one of her four enforcement priorities.