By Bianca Flowers and Gram Slattery
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Donald Trump will immediately issue executive orders that slash diversity, equity and inclusion programs and proclaim the U.S. government will only recognize two sexes – male and female – that cannot be changed, an incoming White House official said on Monday.
The official, speaking just hours before Trump was sworn in as the 47th president, added that more actions on DEI programs were expected “very soon.”
“This week, I will also end the government policy of trying to socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life,” Trump said in his inaugural address.
“We will forge a society that is color blind and merit-based. … As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female,” Trump said.
The Trump administration plans to review and potentially end what the official described as “discriminatory programs,” including environmental justice grants and diversity training initiatives. Full details weren’t immediately revealed about the planned steps to rescind the orders or when they would be announced.
The impending DEI rollback and Trump’s inauguration coincide with this year’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday commemorating the civil rights leader.
Civil and human rights advocates and groups immediately vowed to protect minorities and challenge Trump’s agenda.
“We refuse to back down or be intimidated. We are not going anywhere, and we will fight back against these harmful provisions with everything we’ve got,” Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBTQ+ rights advocacy group in the U.S., said in a statement.
Rights advocates have said any DEI and transgender rights rollbacks implemented by Trump would be a blow to hard-fought efforts to secure equitable policies and undermine progress made to address systemic prejudices that have deprived equal opportunities for marginalized groups for decades.
“We will continue our relentless efforts to protect immigrant rights, combat voter suppression, and confront hate and discrimination in all its forms,” Asian Americans Advancing Justice said in a statement.
Many corporations have distanced themselves from DEI measures, with some rolling back DEI initiatives and programs in recent weeks. Meanwhile, companies such as Costco and Apple have remained resolute in maintaining their commitment to DEI.
As part of the executive orders, federal funds will not be used to promote “gender ideology,” the official said, a loose term often used by conservative groups to reference any ideology that promotes non-traditional views on sex and gender. Rights and advocacy groups view the term as an anti-LGBTQ trope and dehumanizing.
The Trump administration would only recognize two sexes, male and female, that were unchangeable, and would instruct federal employers to use the term sex and not gender, which can refer to gender norms and identity, the incoming White House official said in a background briefing.
U.S. funding will also not be used on gender transition medical procedures, the official said without providing detail.
Federal policy on transgender healthcare is largely affected by Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, that bans discrimination in healthcare on the basis of sex.
In his first term, Trump issued regulations to weaken that section, which was strengthened again under President Joe Biden.
The Trump administration also planned to limit the scope of a major victory for transgender rights under the 2020 U.S. Supreme Court ruling of Bostock v Clayton County, in which the high court found that civil rights protections against discrimination “on the basis of sex” applied to sexuality and gender identity.
The attorney general would provide explicit guidance on how to apply Bostock, the official said.
Transgender rights have become a contentious political topic in recent years. During November’s election season, many Republicans campaigned on reversing transgender laws with a particular focus on transgender women participating in sports.
During a pre-inauguration rally on Sunday, Donald Trump said that he will take action to “keep all men out of women’s sports.”
It was not immediately clear what the executive orders would mean for the U.S. military. During his first term, Trump announced that he would ban transgender troops from serving in the military, and his administration did freeze recruitment of transgender personnel. Biden overturned that decision when he took office in 2021.
Brian Kalt, a constitutional law professor at Michigan State University, said that while presidents do have executive authority some actions that Trump has promised to enact, such as ending birthright citizenship, will “face an uphill battle in court.”
(Reporting by Gram Slattery, Bianca Flowers and Susan Heavey in Washington; Additional reporting by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Howard Goller, Kat Stafford and Andrea Ricci)
