Trump vows to end ‘transgender lunacy’
By Tyler Arnold
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 23, 2024 / 16:15 pm
President-elect Donald Trump during a speech on
Sunday, Dec. 22, vowed to sign executive orders to end transgender surgeries
for children, to prevent biological men from playing in women’s sports, and to
end the promotion of gender ideology in schools and the military.
“With the stroke of my pen, on Day 1, we’re going
to stop the transgender lunacy,” Trump said at Turning Point USA’s annual
AmericaFest in Phoenix.
“Under the Trump administration, it will be the
official policy of the United States government that there are only two
genders: male and female,” he added. “Doesn’t sound too complicated, does
it?”
Trump’s comments over the weekend echo the
president-elect’s promises during his 2024 presidential campaign. His
statements suggest immediate changes to federal policy when he is sworn in as
president in less than a month on Jan. 20, 2025.
Joseph Meaney, a bioethicist at the National
Catholic Bioethics Center, told CNA: “It is good to hear that President-elect
Trump has pledged to make male and female the only genders recognized by the
U.S. federal government.”
“This will reverse the radical agenda that the
Biden administration attempted to implement in favor of the transgender
ideology,” Meaney said.
The president-elect said his first-day executive
orders will include an end to “child sexual mutilation” in the United States,
which is in reference to the transgender surgeries being performed on
children in about half of the country.
Irreversible transgender surgeries — which include
genital surgeries to make them appear more similar to the genitals of the
opposite sex, chest surgeries to remove a girl’s healthy breasts or implant
prosthetic breasts on boys, and other aesthetic surgeries — are still legal for
children in 24 states in the country.
According to a report from
the medical watchdog Do No Harm, at least 5,747 children received transgender
surgeries between 2019 and 2023. This number is based on publicly available
data, but the researchers believe the number is likely higher.
President Joe Biden’s administration
has supported doctors providing transgender surgeries to children. The current
Department of Justice, along with families represented by the American Civil
Liberties Union, filed a lawsuit against Tennessee’s prohibition on the
procedures. The case is currently in front of the United States
Supreme Court.
Theresa Farnan, a fellow for the Person and
Identity Project at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, told CNA that Trump’s
statements “reflect the mood of the country, where parents know intuitively
that ‘gender transition’ medical interventions are harmful.”
“It is good to see that political leaders are
finally courageous enough to represent the common sense of the vast majority of
parents,” Farnan said.
Farnan, however, noted that Catholic
bishops have consistently taught that these
surgeries and other transgender procedures are inherently unethical, and not
just unethical when administered on minors, “as they alter the natural order
and finality of the body.”
“As Catholics, we must regard any executive orders
that the Trump administration issues banning gender transitions for minors as a
good start, while recognizing that our work is not done — the protection from
medical exploitation and medicalized self harm should be extended to all
vulnerable persons, not just minors,” Farnan said.
Trump also said: “We will keep men out of women’s
sports,” in reference to biological males being permitted to play in
women’s and girls’ sports in about half of the country. He also said he would
get transgenderism “out of our elementary schools and middle schools and high
schools.”
This would also be a reversal of the
Biden administration’s policies. The Biden Department of Education revised its interpretation of
Title IX regulations to apply all bans on sex discrimination to include a ban
on discriminating against someone’s self-asserted “gender identity.” These
discrimination rules apply to K–12 schools, colleges, and other educational
institutions.
Enforcement of the Biden
administration rules, however, has been halted by
judges for 26 states after state attorneys general filed legal challenges,
arguing that the executive branch lacks the authority to redefine “sex”
discrimination to be inclusive of “gender identity” discrimination. Legal scholars warned that
the new regulation would overrule state-level policies that restrict women’s
and girls’ sports, locker rooms, bathrooms, and dormitories to only biological
women and girls.
Biden administration officials had been working on
new regulations that would have explicitly prohibited state-level laws that
restrict girls’ and women’s sports to only biological girls and women. However,
the administration withdrew that proposal on Friday, Dec. 20.
Trump also vowed to get
transgenderism “out of the military.” Under Biden’s administration, the
Department of Defense has used taxpayer-funded programs to
pay for gender transitions for members of the military and their
families. During Trump’s first term, he prohibited the military from allowing
most people with gender dysphoria to serve in the military, citing concerns
about mental health and military readiness.
