Trump’s executive order enforces gender binaries, threatening LGBTQIA+ rights and fueling broader discrimination in workplaces, housing and healthcare.
In a flurry of executive orders this week, President Donald Trump signed one that calls for “accurate language and policies that recognize women are biologically female, and men are biologically male.” The order, called Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government, seeks to restore the gender binary.
Let’s be clear: Women do not need to be protected from an inclusive definition of gender or trans people. Nonbinary and trans people exist. Their identities are valid, their rights matter and their existence does not threaten cisgender women or anyone else.
Restricting the rights of LGBTQIA+ people is intentional and targeted to continue to preserve the power of those who have historically held it: straight, white men. Policies like these are designed to maintain control by dehumanizing and excluding anyone who exists outside rigid norms.
While this executive order might seem limited, applying only to federal agencies, its ripple effects go much further. Enforcing binary language lays the foundation for broader discrimination and exclusion, emboldening harmful policies in communities, workplaces and state governments. Policies that have very real economic and social consequences:
- Education and employment: Many states can discriminate based on sexual orientation and/or gender identity.
- Housing discrimination: LGBTQIA+ people can be evicted, denied home loans or turned down for rentals.
- Medical care: LGBTQIA+ people can be denied medical care or service including gender-affirming healthcare.
- Passports and visas: Nonbinary and trans individuals may struggle to obtain accurate legal documentation.
- Refusal of service: Businesses can legally refuse services.
While these changes won’t take effect overnight, it’s vital to know LGBTQIA+ are protected by law. In 2020, the Supreme Court ruled that discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity is prohibited under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Upholding laws like this one is essential, and we must continue to strengthen them through collective action. By engaging within our communities we can protect and expand the rights of women and nonbinary people of color, moving closer toward our shared goal of liberation and economic justice.
Here’s how you can make a difference:
- Advocate locally. Contact your elected officials and demand they join the many states that have already provided additional protections for the LGBTQIA+ community. Support organizations advocating for LGBTQIA+ rights at local, state, and national levels.
- Educate yourself and others. Learn about the challenges nonbinary and trans people face and share that knowledge with your community. Understanding is a powerful tool against discrimination.
- Speak out. Oppose harmful rhetoric and discriminatory policies that target LGBTQIA+ individuals, whether in your community, workplace or online.
- Use inclusive language. Language shares the way we see the world and each other. Commit to words that affirm and respect trans and nonbionary identities.
We’ve taken intentional steps at 9to5 to confront exclusionary language in our own work. Our legal name is 9to5, National Association of Working Women, but we’ve shifted how we present ourselves to reflect the diverse realities of those we serve—dropping “National Association of Working Women” in our logos and when we talk about ourselves. We know that the term women doesn’t capture the full spectrum of people affected by pay disparities, workplace harassment, housing rights and other issues at the intersections of race, gender and class.
In recent years we’ve updated our mission statement to include nonbinary people in our mission explicitly. It reads:
9to5’s mission is to build a movement to achieve economic justice by engaging directly impacted women and nonbinary people of color to improve living and working conditions.
This change was not merely symbolic—it was essential. Including nonbinary and trans people in our mission ensures that our vision of a thriving future includes everyone. We can’t achieve a future where all women—women of color, trans women, cis women and everyone who lives outside of restrictive definitions of gender—can thrive if we don’t explicitly and purposefully include trans and nonbinary individuals in every aspect of policy and community change.
This work demands inclusive language and a commitment to advocacy. It means ensuring that policies like paid leave include all types of families, including chosen families. It also requires addressing critical gaps, such as the lack of data on pay disparities faced by nonbinary and trans women, as well as tackling issues like housing discrimination and workplace harassment. The fight for equality is far from over, but there is hope. Together we can create a world where everyone is recognized, respected and free to live authentically.
