Within hours of being sworn in as the 47th U.S President, Donald Trump began signing dozens of executive orders, some having to do with life and gender & sexuality.
A president’s authority to manage the federal government takes shape through executive orders—formal directives that carry the weight of federal law when they fall within the president’s constitutional powers. While executive orders cannot create new laws or contradict existing ones, they serve as tools for implementing legislation and directing federal agencies’ activities. Presidents maintain the power to alter or cancel their own executive orders as well as those of previous administrations.
Here are some of the executive orders signed by President Trump that relate to issues important to Southern Baptist churches:
Gender and Sexuality
Initial Rescissions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions
This order rescinds (cancels) 78 executive orders and presidential memoranda issued during the Biden administration. The order reverses what it characterizes as “deeply unpopular, inflationary, illegal, and radical practices” implemented by the previous administration, specifically policies related to:
- Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives,
- LGBTQ policies,
- immigration policies,
- and environmental measures.
One executive order of note rescinded by President Trump was President Biden’s Executive Order on “Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation.”
This executive order led to harmful regulatory actions that restricted religious liberty and furthered radical gender ideology. Its cancellation was one of the ERLC’s top priorities communicated to President Trump’s transition team for the first 100 days.
Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government
This order focuses on changing federal policy regarding sex and gender identity. The order establishes definitions and policies that recognize only biological sex, rather than gender identity, in federal policy and documentation.
The order’s key actions include:
- requiring all federal agencies to use only biological sex-based definitions in policies and documents;
- mandating that government IDs reflect biological sex rather than gender identity; prohibiting federal funds from being used to promote “gender ideology”;
- directing changes to policies regarding single-sex spaces in federal facilities—including prisons and shelters—so that biological men are prohibited from being housed women’s prisons and shelters;
- and rescinding multiple executive orders and guidance documents from the Biden administration related to gender identity protections.
Specifically, the order:
- defines sex as “immutable biological classification,”
- defines male and female based on reproductive biology “at conception,”
- and requires agencies to remove policies or communications that recognize gender identity.
It directs the attorney general to issue new guidance regarding the Bostock v. Clayton County Supreme Court decision’s application to federal policy. The order also establishes implementation requirements, including a 120-day deadline for agencies to report on their compliance, and rescinds several previous executive orders related to LGBTQ policies and dissolves the White House Gender Policy Council.
Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation
This order protects children from so-called “gender transition” surgeries and procedures and prohibits federal funding from going toward such interventions. The order states:
“medical professionals are maiming and sterilizing a growing number of impressionable children under the radical and false claim that adults can change a child’s sex through a series of irreversible medical interventions.This dangerous trend will be a stain on our Nation’s history, and it must end.”
The order goes on to say that “it is the policy of the United States that it will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called ‘transition’ of a child from one sex to another, and it will rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life-altering procedures.”
The order specifically:
- requires that institutions received federal research or education funding cease any “gender-transition” interventions;
- mandates that the Department of Health and Human Services take actions to “end the chemical and surgical mutilation of children”;
- bars the use of taxpayer dollars for these procedures;
- and orders the Department of Justice to introduce mechanisms for enforcement and the possibility of legal consequences for entities that continue offering such treatments to minors, or use federal resources to fund or promote them.
Keeping Men out of Women’s Sports
This order protects the integrity and safety of women’s sports by preventing biological men from competing against biological women. Building upon the “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government” order, the Trump administration is seeking to bring collegiate and national athletic programs into compliance with federal law and biological reality.
According to the order:
“It is the policy of the United States to rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities, which results in the endangerment, humiliation, and silencing of women and girls and deprives them of privacy. It shall also be the policy of the United States to oppose male competitive participation in women’s sports more broadly, as a matter of safety, fairness, dignity, and truth.”
Specifically, this order:
- instructs the Secretary of Education to enforce Title IX compliance against educational institutions that are allowing men to compete in women’s sports and enter women’s spaces;
- requires federal agencies to rescind federal grants to educational programs that are not in compliance with the order;
- calls litigation to be resolved related to the Biden administration’s attempt to redefine “sex” under Title IX;
- and continues to rescind the Biden administration’s harmful Title IX rule that endangered women and girls.
Life
Enforcing the Hyde Amendment
This executive order focuses on enforcing the Hyde Amendment, which has traditionally prohibited the use of federal funds for elective abortions. However, the Biden administration took multiple actions to circumvent the Hyde amendment, allowing federal funds to pay for abortion-related travel and leave.
The order’s key purpose is to reverse the previous administration’s expansion of federal funding for abortion services.
- It explicitly revokes two executive orders from 2022 (Executive Orders 14076 and 14079),
- and directs the Office of Management and Budget to provide guidance to federal departments and agencies on implementing these changes.
The order notes that for nearly 50 years, Congress has consistently passed the Hyde Amendment and similar restrictions to prevent federal taxpayer funding of elective abortions, describing this as a “longstanding consensus.” It points out that the previous administration departed from this policy by incorporating abortion funding into various federal programs.
This was one of the ERLC’s top five priorities communicated to President Trump’s transition team prior to his inauguration.
Memorandum for the Secretary Of State The Secretary Of Defense, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, the Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (Mexico City Policy)
This presidential memorandum reinstates what is historically known as the Mexico City Policy, which prohibits U.S. foreign aid from going to any organization that provides abortions. The memorandum takes three main actions.
- First, it revokes a Jan. 28, 2021 memorandum from the previous administration and reinstates a Jan. 23, 2017 memorandum regarding the Mexico City Policy.
- Second, it directs the secretary of state, working with the secretary of Health and Human Services, to implement a plan extending these requirements to all global health assistance provided by any U.S. department or agency.
- Third, it instructs the Secretary of State to ensure that U.S. taxpayer funds do not support organizations or programs involved in coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization programs.
The reinstatement of this important policy was one of the ERLC’s top five priorities communicated to President Trump’s transition team prior to his inauguration.
