Since President Donald Trump took office on Jan. 20, 2025, he has signed more than 50 executive orders, shifting the foreseeable future of the country.
One order declares that the federal government in the United States will only recognize two sexes: male and female.
This policy, entitled, “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government” aims to end “gender ideology.” In his executive order, “sex” is defined as, “An individual’s immutable biological classification as either male or female.”
Additionally, the order makes a distinction between “sex” and “gender identity,” claiming that they are not synonymous.
The policy ordered all government agencies to change the descriptive term, “Gender”, to “Sex” on all government forms and internal documents. These changes also included the demand that all State Department employees remove any gender-identifying pronouns from their email signature.
The reported effects of this order include restrictions on access to certain public health data and government websites.
Associated Press (AP) noted that websites providing educational resources about transgender people and HIV, as well as statistics on transgender bullying and suicide rates, no longer appear.
Trump denied having signed off on the scrubbing of public databases but affirmed the response. AP reports that he pointed out that he campaigned on doing such actions and claimed that it did not “sound like a bad idea to [him].”
Furthermore, the order will roll back protections for transgender people. This includes curbing protection for transgender people in the sports industry and the military.
Though this is the case, certain laws were not mandated across the country.
As reported by the Associated Press, “The order does not issue a nationwide mandate on which bathrooms transgender people can use or which sports competitions they can join, though many states have passed laws on those areas.”
The response from students and faculty alike has been strong. Joseph Giavotella, a philosophy professor who has been working at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette since 2023, said of the order, “My initial thoughts on the executive order were that it is harmful to our society and it is also not the purview of government to dictate the truth about these matters.”
Going further on his observation of government overreach, he shared, “Once government bodies start telling people what to think, silencing the voices of the people and especially in drawing support towards intolerance, then we risk losing not only our primary democratic values, but our sense of community as well.”
Giavotella also noted the impacts it will have on his community, saying, “Just the fact that this has been written, notwithstanding the legal concerns, serves as a polarizing stand taken towards transgendered people that they are not welcome, that they do not belong, that they are not supported.”
Conversely, Connor Carollo, a freshman majoring in visual arts, weighed in on the conversation, saying, “Doesn’t affect me at all. I’m a guy, doesn’t affect me personally.” When asked if he thought it might affect his community, he said, “The problem is, I don’t see how it should.”
Other students held opinions that conflicted with his viewpoint. Natalie Himel, a freshman majoring in psychology noted that her religion and her studies impacts her views. She shared, “Being Catholic, my faith teaches me that, while there are labels, there are also different versions of different people, and that God makes everything good, and that if something is made, then it is good.”
Himel added, “And that’s something I can recognize in my area of study as well, that if this person before me is struggling, their struggles are not them.”
In a conversation with the president of the University’s Giving Love, Acceptance, Safety, and Support club (ULGLASS), Jolie “Bug” Daigle weighed in on how they predict the effects of the order. They said, “Executive orders take a long time to really come into effect at the local level, so we might not see anything legally here, like, physically impacting us.”
“But on the societal aspect, it creates a narrative on the national level that masquerades discrimination as heroism,” they continued.
Daigle also added, “I definitely foresee a lot of anger, but I also foresee a lot of hopelessness. People are tired of having to live their day-to-day constantly being attacked by people who are misinformed or fall victim to propaganda.”
The public’s opinions vary, but people of differing backgrounds and education levels maintain that their feelings toward the executive order are strong. The perspectives are polarized, with some feeling indifferent since they are not directly impacted.
Nevertheless, the overwhelming concern is toward the impact it will have on the community and the future of the country.