Trump vows executive action ‘on Day 1’ to end ‘transgender lunacy’

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 23, 2024 / 16:15 pm

President-elect Donald Trump during a speech on Sunday, Dec. 22, vowed to sign executive orders to end transgender surgeries for children, to prevent biological men from playing in women’s sports, and to end the promotion of gender ideology in schools and the military. 

“With the stroke of my pen, on Day 1, we’re going to stop the transgender lunacy,” Trump said at Turning Point USA’s annual AmericaFest in Phoenix. 

“Under the Trump administration, it will be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders: male and female,” he added. “Doesn’t sound too complicated, does it?” 

Trump’s comments over the weekend echo the president-elect’s promises during his 2024 presidential campaign. His statements suggest immediate changes to federal policy when he is sworn in as president in less than a month on Jan. 20, 2025.

Joseph Meaney, a bioethicist at the National Catholic Bioethics Center, told CNA: “It is good to hear that President-elect Trump has pledged to make male and female the only genders recognized by the U.S. federal government.” 

“This will reverse the radical agenda that the Biden administration attempted to implement in favor of the transgender ideology,” Meaney said. 

The president-elect said his first-day executive orders will include an end to “child sexual mutilation” in the United States, which is in reference to the transgender surgeries being performed on children in about half of the country. 

Irreversible transgender surgeries — which include genital surgeries to make them appear more similar to the genitals of the opposite sex, chest surgeries to remove a girl’s healthy breasts or implant prosthetic breasts on boys, and other aesthetic surgeries — are still legal for children in 24 states in the country. 

According to a report from the medical watchdog Do No Harm, at least 5,747 children received transgender surgeries between 2019 and 2023. This number is based on publicly available data, but the researchers believe the number is likely higher. 

President Joe Biden’s administration has supported doctors providing transgender surgeries to children. The current Department of Justice, along with families represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, filed a lawsuit against Tennessee’s prohibition on the procedures. The case is currently in front of the United States Supreme Court.

Theresa Farnan, a fellow for the Person and Identity Project at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, told CNA that Trump’s statements “reflect the mood of the country, where parents know intuitively that ‘gender transition’ medical interventions are harmful.”

“It is good to see that political leaders are finally courageous enough to represent the common sense of the vast majority of parents,” Farnan said.

Farnan, however, noted that Catholic bishops have consistently taught that these surgeries and other transgender procedures are inherently unethical, and not just unethical when administered on minors, “as they alter the natural order and finality of the body.”

“As Catholics, we must regard any executive orders that the Trump administration issues banning gender transitions for minors as a good start, while recognizing that our work is not done — the protection from medical exploitation and medicalized self harm should be extended to all vulnerable persons, not just minors,” Farnan said.

Trump also said: “We will keep men out of women’s sports,” in reference to biological males being permitted to play in women’s and girls’ sports in about half of the country. He also said he would get transgenderism “out of our elementary schools and middle schools and high schools.” 

This would also be a reversal of the Biden administration’s policies. The Biden Department of Education revised its interpretation of Title IX regulations to apply all bans on sex discrimination to include a ban on discriminating against someone’s self-asserted “gender identity.” These discrimination rules apply to K–12 schools, colleges, and other educational institutions. 

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Enforcement of the Biden administration rules, however, has been halted by judges for 26 states after state attorneys general filed legal challenges, arguing that the executive branch lacks the authority to redefine “sex” discrimination to be inclusive of “gender identity” discrimination. Legal scholars warned that the new regulation would overrule state-level policies that restrict women’s and girls’ sports, locker rooms, bathrooms, and dormitories to only biological women and girls.

Biden administration officials had been working on new regulations that would have explicitly prohibited state-level laws that restrict girls’ and women’s sports to only biological girls and women. However, the administration withdrew that proposal on Friday, Dec. 20.

Trump also vowed to get transgenderism “out of the military.” Under Biden’s administration, the Department of Defense has used taxpayer-funded programs to pay for gender transitions for members of the military and their families. During Trump’s first term, he prohibited the military from allowing most people with gender dysphoria to serve in the military, citing concerns about mental health and military readiness.