President Donald Trump’s Executive Order 14020, “Defending Women from Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government” reveals many restrictions on transgender and nonbinary individuals. The order declares that medical professionals are corrupting a growing number of children under the claim that adults can change a child’s gender.
Trump has implemented a policy that only recognizes two genders in order to protect women in his administration. This is what’s strange: he claims that he wants to protect women’s rights, but it’s the opinion of several individuals that trans women are women. This segment of the order fails to mention or apply to trans men and address how this will protect women.
Passport restrictions are also placed due to the executive order. On every individual’s passport, there’s a small letter; M for male and F for female. Since 2022, there has been an X option for individuals who identified as neither male nor female. Not only has Trump taken this option away, he also ordered that transgender individuals may not change the letter on their passports. Incarcerated transgender people are being transported to prisons that align with their assigned at birth gender. This is wrong as everyone is looking at your passport, and looking at you in prison, and it’s harder to fight for passing as your preferred gender.
Trump has also banned trans people from serving in the military, as he claims it “conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle.” This has not been proven as a fact. Several people believe that Trump shouldn’t put this in place, as he has talked about how the military is not gaining enough soldiers.
Gender-affirming care is being restricted through a lack of funding to trans youth younger than 19. There has been studies that have shown that gender-affirming care has not only improved mental health for trans youth, but also saved lives. University of Washington found that having access to hormones and puberty blockers for youth ages 13-20 was associated with a 60% lower odds of moderate to severe depression and a 73% lower odds of self-harm or suicidal thoughts compared to youth who did not receive these medications over a 12-month period.
Trump has called on the Department of Education (DOE) to make a policy to stop the support of students who are socially transitioning, and prohibit curriculum stating that gender is fluid, which Trump defines as an idea. The policy would block schools from requiring teachers and other school staff to use names and pronouns that students identify as rather than the one they were assigned at birth.
The order goes on to ban students from participating in sports teams that align with their gender identity or use the correct bathroom for their identity. However, the education department hasn’t called on this order yet, meaning it hasn’t been enforced and implemented in students’ lives yet.
This executive order can and will affect transgender and nonbinary youth, all in a negative way. This is keeping queer youth from feeling comfortable or even able to express themselves. I’m glad there are still schools that respect students’ preferred names and pronouns, but for the ones that don’t, I wish the best upon trans and nonbinary youth in those schools.
