President Donald Trump is wasting little time implementing his transphobic executive orders within days of his return to the White House — particularly his broad order denying recognition of non-binary individuals and transgender individuals across the federal government.
The Trump administration banned gender-affirming care for incarcerated individuals in federal prisons and ordered those prisons to house individuals by their gender assigned at birth, effectively barring transgender and non-binary individuals from being housed in accordance with their gender identity. The policy extends to individuals in immigration detention, according to the New York Times, which reported on the prison policy on Jan. 23. There are around 1,500 transgender incarcerated individuals in the Bureau of Prisons, according to the New York Times.
The federal Bureau of Prisons on Jan. 24 did not respond to multiple emails and phone calls seeking comment on the implementation of that policy. MDC Brooklyn, which holds 1,132 inmates at 80 29th Street in Brooklyn, also did not respond to emails and phone calls seeking comment on Jan 24.
Meanwhile, ABC News reported on Jan. 24 that the State Department has frozen passport applications with “X” gender markers, erasing a Biden administration policy under Secretary of State Antony Blinken to introduce an “X” gender marker for non-binary individuals. Existing passports with “X” gender markers will be respected, according to ABC, which acquired internal communication about the policy, but future applications are in jeopardy.
According to The Guardian, the State Department has also ordered the suspension of “any application where the applicant is seeking to change their sex marker.”
“They can still apply to renew their passport — they just have to use their God-given sex, which was decided at birth,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told notus.org in eye-popping comments that demonstrated the extent to which the Trump administration will blur the lines between church and state.
The anti-trans policies set forth by the Bureau of Prisons and the State Department stem from the executive order entitled, “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” which orders the federal government to only recognize individuals by the gender they were assigned at birth.
Gay City News reached out to the State Department seeking comment and clarification about the future of passports with “X” gender markers and passport applications for trans and non-binary individuals. A State Department spokesperson unsuccessfully sought to go off the record before saying, “For information on executive orders, please see White House Presidential Actions,” and sent a URL directing to the White House’s general list of “presidential actions.”
The State Department did not stop there. Secretary of State Marco Rubio banned Rainbow Flags — and any flag other than the US Flag or the POW/MIA Flag — at US embassies and other diplomatic spaces, according to a State Department memo obtained by the Washington Blade.
“No symbol or affiliation marking other than those authorized by US statute, the president, or the secretary may be displayed, projected, or exhibited at any U.S. facility, both domestic and abroad,” the policy states.
The Trump administration’s executive orders are expected to face significant resistance in federal courts, and some groups have already started taking legal action. One of his orders — the one seeking to curtail birthright citizenship — was temporarily blocked by a federal judge.
