Ending federal diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies and declaring that there are only two sexes were among President-elect Donald Trump’s first actions after he was sworn in as president on Jan. 20, according to incoming White House officials.
The Trump administration will define a female as “a person belonging at conception to the sex that produces the large reproductive cell,” with the large reproductive cell being an egg cell or ovum.
Notably, the definition does not rely on chromosomes—a fact that should clear up confusion regarding intersex individuals, who may have an irregular combination of chromosomes.
On a phone call with reporters before Trump’s inauguration, Trump’s team advised that federal officials would continue to distinguish between sex and gender, due to the social element involved with discussions of gender norms and roles.
Agencies will be directed to enforce laws that protect men and women as “biologically distinct” sexes.
The government will not “promote” gender ideology, however, and will rescind the Biden administration’s policy expanding the protections of Title IX to include gender identity.
The executive action will also protect women’s privacy in intimate spaces and safeguard against the enforcement of pronoun policies that infringe on individuals’ free speech rights.
The DEI directive will end all federal programs and preferences based on race, sex, gender, or other immutable characteristics.
Asked if the new policies would address the subject of conversion therapy—a practice the Biden administration banned—officials said they would not.
They said, however, that additional actions on DEI will be coming “very soon.”
