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Grace Abels
By Grace Abels January 22, 2025

Trump passes executive order declaring “two sexes” and requests proposed legislation

On his first day in office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order declaring it "the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female," which are defined based on a person's sex "at conception." 

Although this action aligns with Trump's promise, it is an executive order, not legislation passed by Congress. However, the order directs his director of legislative affairs to "present to the President proposed bill text to codify the definitions in this order" within 30 days, signaling Trump's intent to fulfill his promise of signing a law to this effect.

The promise is one of 75 Trump made that PolitiFact will track on the MAGA-Meter. Over the next four years, we will periodically evaluate the new administration's progress on Trump's 2024 campaign promises, just as we did with Barack Obama, Trump during his first term, and Joe Biden

States have passed laws narrowly defining terms such as "sex" and "gender"  that can restrict access to driver's licenses and documents that match a person's gender identity. 

In the meantime, the executive order's immediate effect on people's day-to-day lives is so far unclear. 

The broad order directs federal agencies to "enforce laws governing sex-based rights, protections, opportunities, and accommodations to protect men and women as biologically distinct sexes." The order also enumerates some specific policy changes agencies must make, such as requiring government-issued IDs including passports to "accurately reflect the holder's sex," and mandating the Bureau of Prisons revise its policies on gender-affirming medical care, for example. 

Other directives are vaguer, such as a portion that says "agencies shall take all necessary steps, as permitted by law, to end the federal funding of gender ideology." What funding falls under this definition is unclear. 

The order is extensive, but its changes might not materialize for a while. 

"The implementation of almost all this is going to take some amount of time," said Elana Redfield, the federal policy director at the Williams Institute, an LGBTQ+-focused think tank at the UCLA School of Law. "Everything that's announced here in this order is a statement of policy, and the actual practical implications are going to take some time to really understand."  

Redfield added that litigation may affect the execution of this policy. 

"We should expect lots of litigation around these executive orders, and that's going to mean that the practical applications of some of these changes might not be felt for a very long time," Redfield said.

We rate this promise In the Works. 

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