President Donald Trump’s First Week in Office: Fulfilling a Key Campaign Promise
In his first week in office, President Donald Trump has taken significant steps to challenge “gender ideology” in American institutions and promote “biological truth” rooted in “fundamental and incontrovertible reality.” This move comes as the Supreme Court is poised to rule on two significant gender-related cases this year.
One of the cases, Mahmoud v. Taylor, will determine whether schools can force teachers to read LGBTQ books to elementary-age children despite parental objections. The issue at hand is whether parents will have the right to opt their children out of such instructions. The Supreme Court will be required to focus solely on the facts presented in the case, considering questions related to the parameters of parental rights and what constitutes a curriculum for opt-out purposes.
The other case, Skrmetti v. U.S., involves a challenge to laws that ban medical providers from offering puberty blockers and hormone treatments to children seeking transgender surgical procedures. The Biden administration has joined the lawsuit, and the Supreme Court will weigh the equal protection clause, which guarantees equal treatment under the law for individuals in similar circumstances.
President Trump’s recent executive order, titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” declares that the U.S. will recognize only two sexes – male and female – based on immutable biological characteristics. The order prohibits the use of gender identity in legal and administrative contexts and mandates that federal agencies adhere to this definition when enforcing laws and issuing regulations.
The order also directs changes to government-issued identification documents, bans the promotion of “gender ideology” in federal programs, rescinds previous executive actions that promoted gender identity inclusion, and instructs federal agencies to eliminate guidance or regulations that conflict with the new policy.
Sarah Marshall Perry, senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation, believes that the executive order should not influence the Supreme Court’s decision-making, stating, “The executive order should have absolutely no bearing on what the Supreme Court decides going forward.”
Perry added that the executive order is a statement of policy for the Trump administration, echoing former President Joe Biden’s executive order expanding sex to include gender identity.