By Karina DiMare
On Jan. 20, President Donald Trump issued Executive Order 14168 titled “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism And Restoring Biological Truth To The Federal Government” The order declares that the U.S. government will only recognize individuals as biologically male or female. What an individual chooses to identify as will no longer be recognized by the government or any organizations it controls.
With this order, Trump provided a list of documents he plans to revoke or alter that don’t line up with his ideals. The following documents are federal guides and resources for LGBTQIA+ individuals that will be rescinded with this order:
- “The White House Toolkit on Transgender Equality”
- “U.S. Department of Education Toolkit: Creating Inclusive and Nondiscriminatory School Environments for LGBTQI+ Students”
- “Supporting Intersex Students: A Resource for Students, Families, and Educators”
- “Confronting Anti-LGBTQI+ Harassment in Schools: A Resource for Students and Families”
“If someone identifies a certain way, then I feel like they should be able to identify how they feel like they want to identify,” said Lance Carr, public relations and advertising major at The University of Tampa.
“I honestly think it was a really ignorant decision,” Carr added.
Trump used women’s rights to justify this order and claimed it is necessary because “efforts to eradicate the biological reality of sex fundamentally attack women by depriving them of their dignity, safety, and well-being,” as the order stated.
“I personally disagree with that; I feel plenty safe,” said Nia Slaton, junior political science major. “I don’t understand how that correlates to women’s rights at all.”
There are more significant issues in relation to women’s rights than people who don’t identify as their biological sex given at birth. The government should be focusing on the main things that harm women like domestic and sexual violence, inadequate healthcare, and pay gaps. In 2023, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that one in four women will experience domestic violence in their lifetime.
Upon searching for statistics on crimes committed by transgender individuals on women, I only found violence committed against transgender individuals, which I find interesting. More than 2,800 hate crimes occurred against LGBTQIA+ individuals in 2023. In addition, a study done from 2017 to 2018 by The American Journal of Public Health found that transgender individuals experienced four times as many violent victimizations as cisgender individuals.
Shortly after this order was released, the National Park Service website stripped the words “transgender” and “queer” from their content about the Stonewall Uprising.
The updated website states, “Before the 1960s, almost everything about living openly as a lesbian, gay, bisexual (LGB) person was illegal, but the events at the Stonewall Inn sparked fresh momentum for the LGB civil rights movement!”
The Stonewall Uprising began in New York on June 28, 1969 when “homosexuality was considered a criminal offense.” It was a series of police raids on multiple gay bars. Marsha P. Johnson and other transgender and queer icons were on the frontlines of this historic event.
Mark Segal, LGBTQ+ activist, author, and National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) Ambassador for Change, said in an official statement, “You cannot erase the history of Stonewall by erasing a letter. You cannot erase trans people by erasing a letter.”
Great strides were taken by the LGBTQIA+ community 55 years ago. People put their lives on the line for their livelihood and what they believed in. It’s a monumental issue that after decades of pushing back, this community continues to be silenced.
“We should be dealing with a lot more issues than trying to limit someone from changing their gender,” said Slaton. “I just feel like this is such a big issue, but it doesn’t have to be. This doesn’t have to be some kind of polarizing topic. People’s lives are now politicized, and I think that’s really sad.”
“You can keep trying to get rid of us, but we’re not going anywhere,” said Carr.
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Photo courtesy of Ted Eytan, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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