By Bianca Flowers and Daniel Trotta
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump on Monday rescinded executive orders that promoted diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) and promoted rights for LGBTQ+ people and racial minorities, fulfilling promises to reduce protections for the most marginalized Americans.
Shortly after taking office, Trump rescinded 78 executive orders signed by his predecessor Joe Biden, including at least a dozen measures supporting racial equality and combating discrimination against gay and transgender people.
Shortly before Trump was sworn in as the 47th president, a future White House official told reporters that Trump would soon take several executive actions that would, for example, declare that the U.S. government would recognize only two genders — male and female — that I can’t change it.
Trump’s policy represents a major departure from the Biden administration, which prioritized implementing diversity measures in the federal government. Trump rescinded two executive orders Biden signed on his first day in office four years ago, one promoting racial equality for underserved communities and another combating discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation.
Trump has rescinded other orders aimed at helping blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans and Asian Americans, and Pacific Islanders.
“This week I will also end the government’s policy of attempting to socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life,” Trump said in his inaugural address.
“We will create a color-blind, merit-based society … Starting today, the official policy of the United States government will be that there are only two sexes, 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.
The return of DEI and Trump’s inauguration coincided with this year’s Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. commemorating the civil rights leader.
Advocates and civil and human rights groups immediately vowed to protect minorities and challenge Trump’s plan.
“We refuse to back down or be intimidated. We are not going anywhere and will fight these harmful provisions with everything we have,” Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBTQ+ rights advocacy group in the US, said in a statement.
Rights advocates said any rollback by Trump of DEI and transgender rights would be a blow to efforts to ensure fair policies and undermine progress made in addressing systemic biases that have denied equal opportunities to marginalized groups for decades.
“We will continue our relentless efforts to protect the rights of immigrants, fight voter suppression, and oppose hate and discrimination in all forms,” Asian Americans Advancing Justice said in a statement.
Many corporations have distanced themselves from DEI measures, with some withdrawing DEI initiatives and programs in recent weeks. Meanwhile, companies like Costco (NASDAQ: ) and Apple (NASDAQ: ) have remained steadfast in 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 refer to any ideology that promotes nontraditional views of sex and gender. Rights and advocacy groups see the term as an anti-LGBTQ trope and dehumanizing.
The Trump administration would recognize only two genders, male and female, which are immutable, and would direct federal employers to use the term sex rather than gender, which can refer to gender norms and identity, a new White House official said in a background briefing .
US funds will also not be used for medical gender transition procedures, the official said without elaborating.
The Trump administration also planned to limit the scope of a major victory for transgender rights under the 2020 U.S. Supreme Court ruling Bostock v. Clayton County, in which the high court found that civil rights protections against “sex-based” discrimination apply to sexuality and gender identity.
The attorney general will provide specific instructions on how to apply Bostock, the official said.
Transgender rights have become a contentious political issue in recent years. During the November election season, many Republicans campaigned to repeal the transgender law with a particular focus on transgender women who participate in sports.
During a pre-inauguration rally on Sunday, Donald Trump said he would take action to “keep all the men out of women’s sports.”
It was not immediately clear what the executive orders would mean for the US military. During his first term, Trump announced that he would ban transgender troops from serving in the military, and his administration froze the hiring of transgender personnel. Biden reversed that decision when he took office in 2021.
