Donald Trump was re-elected president on a wave of attacks against women and transgender people. Anti-transgender politicians spent more than $215 million on ads scapegoating trans people and promoting a Project 2025 agenda that threatens to rollback reproductive freedom and punish people for departing from archaic gender roles. On his first day back in office, President Trump signed a far-reaching executive order requiring federal agencies to discriminate against transgender people by denying who they are and threatening the freedom of self-determination and self-expression for all.

In 2020, the Supreme Court issued a 6-3 ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County affirming that discrimination against someone because they are LGBTQ is sex discrimination under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Justice Neil Gorsuch, writing for the majority, said: “it is impossible to discriminate against a person for being homosexual or transgender without discriminating against that individual based on sex.” Trump also withdrew an executive order issued by former President Joe Biden directing federal agencies to enforce this court ruling as applied to all laws prohibiting sex discrimination.

We all deserve the freedom to be ourselves, including the right to determine what’s right for our bodies and lives. Trump’s sex discrimination mandate threatens to deny that freedom to transgender people across the country while forcing everyone else to sacrifice their own freedom and privacy, too.

Trump’s signed order states: “It is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female.  These sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality.” The order defines terms like “man” and “woman” based on whether a person “at conception” belongs “to the sex that produces the large reproductive cell” or that “produces the small reproductive cell.”

Trump’s order then directs federal agencies to “enforce laws governing sex-based rights, protections, opportunities, and accommodations” using his cramped definitions, including designating sex on passports and other federal identification documents, or determining where transgender people are confined in federal custody. The order also includes a sweeping mandate to all agencies to “end the Federal funding of gender ideology.” Of course, the order does not explain what that means or how agencies would accomplish such a task.

For decades, feminist legal scholars and women’s rights advocates have opposed efforts to define gender based strictly on biology. Recent state laws that use these definitions to discriminate against transgender people have resulted in invasive and traumatizing efforts to determine who “counts” as a man or as a woman, targeting youth who are even suspected of being transgender because they do not conform to sex stereotypes. This order likewise ignores the existence of intersex people and others with variations in sex characteristics beyond the overly-simplistic definitions Trump endorsed.

Very few executive orders change policy immediately, and they cannot change laws passed by Congress or protections guaranteed by the Constitution. As of January 21, 2025 it is unclear how the Trump administration will enforce this order as applied to educational settings, health care access, housing, federally-funded programs, and many other areas where federal law or policy references “sex” or “gender.”

Some of the most immediate impacts will likely be felt by the more than 2,000 transgender people currently held in federal custody. The order specifically calls on the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to ignore the guidelines of the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) and enforce a blanket policy forcing transgender women into men’s prisons and detention centers against their will. This puts them at a severely heightened risk of sexual assault and abuse by other incarcerated persons and prison staff. The order also mandates that BOP withdraw critical health care from trans people in federal prison.

We also expect to see immediate impacts on access to updated sex designations on U.S. passports. Transgender people frequently update the sex designation on documents like birth certificates, driver’s licenses, and passports to reflect their gender identity rather than the sex they were assigned at birth. Requiring transgender peoples’ passports to show the sex they were assigned at birth effectively outs them as transgender whenever they have to present the document.

Soon after the order was issued, a Trump administration official told a reporter that the policy impacting gender markers on U.S. passports would not apply retroactively for current passport holders. Trump’s order will, however, prevent transgender and intersex people from obtaining new passports, visas, and trusted traveler documents that reflect who they are and how they are perceived in the world. Online forms and websites providing instructions for how to update your gender marker on federal travel documents have already been removed. As of January 21, 2025, we are awaiting further information about how precisely the new passport policy will be implemented. In the meantime, we know transgender people are fearful about whether they can safely travel.

We expect the order may be enforced in other contexts, such as in public schools and sex-separated spaces. It may also be used to limit workplace protections and to limit federally-funded programs that provide access for gender-affirming health care. If federal agencies and departments act to make those risks a reality, the ACLU and other LGBTQ rights organizations will fight them every step of the way.

If you have been impacted by this order, let us know.

January 22 is Trans Prisoner Day of Solidarity and Action, and there has never been a more important time to commemorate it. Transgender people in prison are some of the most marginalized people in our society, subject to both anti-trans policies and procedures and the dehumanizing conditions of imprisonment. Legislators across the globe are codifying anti-transness into law, and the U.S.—and Florida especially—are leading the pack.

One of the countless people devastated by these anti-trans policies is Reiyn Keohane, a trans woman incarcerated in a male prison in Florida. For years, she received medically necessary hormone replacement therapy and clothing and grooming options that aligned with her gender identity. But on September 30, 2024, the Florida Department of Corrections (FDOC) abruptly changed its policy for trans inmates, stripping away clothing and grooming accommodations and creating requirements that essentially ban hormone replacement therapy. Prison staff threatened disciplinary action against anyone who refused to comply with their new policy.

Despite previously acknowledging that gender-affirming care is a medical necessity, Florida prisons are now in the process of removing much of this life-saving support to Keohane and countless other trans inmates, citing a state statute banning the use of state funds for “sex-reassignment prescriptions and procedures.”

Codified in 2023 by Florida’s SB 254, this restriction on government funding for gender-affirming care for trans people in state custody was passed alongside several other explicitly anti-trans laws that limit and even criminalize gender-affirming care far beyond prison walls, particularly for trans youth and those on Medicaid.

The government’s refusal to provide basic gender-affirming care to incarcerated trans people like Keohane is motivated by the very same political actors and ideologies as the many other oppressive policies being proposed and passed across the U.S. From restrictions on gender-affirming care to the censorship of “woke” and DEI-related content in schools and even the criminalization of abortion, these policies—and the fights against them—are deeply connected.

Extremist politicians and their supporters invested in maintaining the status quo are the primary backers of oppressive policies like the ones targeting trans people in prison. They argue that their policies will protect women and children, parents’ rights, family values, and even governmental spending. While some may truly believe these arguments, most mainstream discussions of these issues leave out a crucial component: the primary goal of these policies, and the ideologies behind them, is to make trans people, incarcerated people, Black and brown people, immigrants, abortion patients, and so many others into scapegoats for the everyday struggles our society is facing.

By focusing on sensationalized issues and fanning the flames of culture wars, extremist politicians and the ruling class can avoid taking responsibility for their role in the cost-of-living crisis, climate emergencies, and the instability of our local communities. And by capturing the country’s attention with constant controversy, the political and economic elite can divert people’s rightful anger at their circumstances away from the structural causes, and toward vulnerable groups, hateful stereotypes, and reactionary policies.

Trans people, people in prison, and other marginalized groups serve as canaries in the coal mine; they warn us of the dangerous political direction we are heading. Right now, the government is testing the waters for its most oppressive policies—seeing what it can get away with when the targeted group is demonized and dehumanized. If we allow the state to deny basic resources and life-saving medical care to incarcerated trans people like Reiyn Keohane without putting up a fight, it will be that much easier for them to do it again and again—to steal away more and more of our autonomy and freedom.

The good news is this: if we can succeed in resisting even just one of the violent and oppressive attacks coming our way, we can build the momentum our movements need to win. Every victory for freedom, autonomy, and self-determination, no matter how small, provides a crucial reprieve from the bombardment of regressive laws and policies and serves as a building block for the future we so desperately need.

Movements for queer and trans freedom have historically organized across prison walls. Trans trailblazer Sylvia Rivera’s landmark speech in 1973 unapologetically prioritized incarcerated queer and trans people, refusing to allow their contributions and experiences to be forgotten. Groups like ACT UP protested against the lack of HIV/AIDS protection for prisoners and supported efforts by HIV-positive incarcerated people to build networks like the AIDS Committee for Education. 

Today, we have the opportunity—and responsibility—to continue this work. We must commit to raising awareness, building connections, and taking action in solidarity with incarcerated trans people in Florida and everywhere. There are countless ways to get involved; here are just a few possibilities to consider this Trans Prisoner Day of Action and Solidarity.

• Write letters to queer, trans, and political prisoners. Find a pen pal through Black and Pink, a national LGBTQIA+ organization fighting against the violence of prisons, or work with local organizations to connect with an incarcerated person in your area.
• Support organizations and mutual aid groups led by and for trans and incarcerated people. You can donate, volunteer, attend events, and lend your unique skills to their efforts. Many national organizations work on issues at the intersection of the LGBTQIA+ community and incarceration, such as the TGI Justice Project, the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, LGBT Books to Prisoners, the Tranzmission Prison Project, and the LGBTQ Freedom Fund.
• In Florida, community organizers are working hard to push back against oppressive legislation and deadly prison conditions. Advocacy groups engaged in this fight need our support, including the ACLU of Florida, Equality Florida, the Florida Coalition for Trans Liberation, Justice Advocacy Network, the Campaign for Southern Equality, the Prison Book Project (Pensacola), Tallahassee Bail Fund, Gainesville Books to Prisoners, Florida Prisoner Solidarity (Gainesville), SAVE LGBT (South Florida), the Community Hotline for Incarcerated People South Florida (Broward and Palm Beach counties), (F)empower Community Bail Fund (Miami-Dade), and so many more.

We must refuse the isolation and dehumanization that the government is attempting to impose on our communities. Make art, break bread, tell stories, build strong relationships, and connect across differences. Fight like our lives and our futures depend on it—because they do.