During the second presidency of Donald Trump, the United States government has taken a series of actions to persecute people who are transgender. These actions have been accompanied by anti-transgender rhetoric and misinformation, often to dehumanize and scapegoat transgender people and portray them as a social threat.
The administration has restricted, defunded, and blocked gender-affirming care—especially in the case of minors—as well as research and education related to transgender issues. It has utilized censorship of inclusive language for the purpose of anti-transgender policy and directed law enforcement and the FBI to investigate the promotion of "radical gender ideology". The Trump administration has undergone purges of transgender military personnel, prohibited transgender girls and women from participating in women's sports, discriminated against transgender inmates, and has created restrictions on passports and international travel for transgender people.
The Trump administration's actions targeting transgender people draw much of their design from the anti-transgender movement in the United Kingdom, and form part of the broader 2020s anti-LGBTQ movement in the United States and the anti-gender movement. The administration's actions have been referred to by some advocates as the early stages of genocide similar to that of persecution of transgender people in Nazi Germany, arguing they seek to "marginalize them socially and economically".
Background In the years leading up to the 2024 United States presidential election, there were an increasing number of state level laws and bans targeting transgender people.; ; ; ; Anti-transgender campaigning was a large part of the Trump campaign,; ; ; ; ; ; ; with spending on anti-transgender advertising being greater than spending on advertising discussing housing, immigration, or the economy.; ; At multiple times throughout the campaign, Trump made false claims that schools were performing "gender-affirming surgeries on children without their parents' consent", with multiple conservative groups stating that, while not true, the claims were "valid". Trump promised during his campaign that, if elected, he would sign an executive order instructing every federal agency to cease the promotion of sex or gender transition at any age, and promised to crack down on gender-affirming care for all ages.
Project 2025, which was published in 2023, detailed many of the goals of policies targeting transgender people that have since been implemented during the second Trump presidency.; ; The administration's actions targeting transgender people have also drawn from the actions of the anti-transgender movement in the United Kingdom over the 2010s and 2020s.; ;
Executive orders
Following his second inauguration on January 20, 2025, Trump began issuing a series of executive orders targeting transgender people across the United States.; ;
Executive Order 14168
On January 20, 2025, shortly after being inaugurated, Trump signed an Executive Order,; ; which defined sex to the federal government as a male-female binary, with "female" and "male" defined as "a person belonging, at conception to the sex that produces the large reproductive cell" and a "person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the small reproductive cell", respectively. The order also mandated that:
Federal agencies use "sex" instead of "gender", remove materials that "promote gender ideology", and halt "funding of gender ideology" Official government documents such as passports and visas prohibit self-selection of gender Transgender people be barred from government-funded single-sex facilities congruent with their gender identity The Bureau of Prisons halt federal funding for gender-affirming care. Federal funding no longer be used for gender-affirming care The attorney general provide guidance to "correct the misapplication of the Supreme Court's decision in Bostock v. Clayton County (2020) to sex-based distinctions" in federal agency activities Prior policies and federal documents inconsistent with itself be rescinded, including policies requiring the use of names and pronouns consistent with a person's gender identity in federal workplaces.
Trump defended the order by stating it would protect women from "men masquerading as women".
Provisions of the order have faced legal challenges, with temporary restraining orders having been issued to suspend the withholding of federal funding to programs that fund gender-affirming care and promote "gender ideology", the forced transfers of transgender inmates to facilities congruent with their sex assigned at birth, and the mass removal of documents published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Food and Drug Administration, and the Department of Health and Human Services that mention topics related to "gender ideology".
In July 2025, the federal government shut down specialized services for LGBTQ youth through its Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, stating that such services encouraged children to "to embrace radical gender ideology".
In July 2025, The Lancet published an investigation which alleged that around half of all U.S. health datasets were secretly and substantially altered in the two months after the executive order was signed, with the alterations being done to remove messages that "promote or otherwise inculcate gender ideology".
In October 2025, the Trump administration blocked student loan forgiveness for any public worker or group who takes part in providing gender-affirming care to transgender youth.
In November 2025, after the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that gender markers in passports could be restricted, the State Department introduced a policy to comply with the executive order that required passports issued to transgender people to mark the gender initially recorded on their birth certificates, superseding the prior policy that had been in place since 1992.
Word blacklisting In January 2025, a list of "forbidden terms" was reportedly distributed within the government's health-related agencies, instructing employees to avoid certain words, including "gender", "transgender", or "LGBT". Such words were also widely removed from websites run by multiple different federal agencies, including the National Park Service Stonewall National Monument website. Editors at scientific journals, such as The BMJ and the European Journal of Public Health, objected to the policy. Scientific grants were revoked or reviewed on the basis of that LGBT topics had been mentioned in the research.
Executive Order 14183
On January 27, 2025, Trump signed an executive order declaring that a soldier being transgender "conflicts with a soldier's commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one's personal life" and that transgender people "cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service".; ; ;
On March 18, 2025, Judge Ana C. Reyes blocked the executive order, ruling that banning transgender people from the military likely violated their constitutional rights.
A May 15 memo later detailed how transgender service members would be discharged, saying that they would be given the discharge code of "JDK", which is typically used to indicate that a soldier is considered a threat to national security, and which can prevent them from getting future jobs or security clearances. An August 4 United States Air Force memo announced that long-serving transgender members normally eligible for retirement benefits would be denied them. A memo sent out at the beginning of October advised that unit commanders could override the decisions of separation boards if the separation boards determined that transgender service personnel could remain in service.
Executive Order 14187
On January 28, 2025, Trump signed an executive order to "Protect Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation". The order described gender-affirming care for minors as "chemical and surgical mutilation of children" as well as "maiming" and "sterilizing".; ; It stated "countless children" who received such care would regret a "horrifying tragedy that they will never be able to conceive children of their own or nurture their children through breastfeeding". The order also described the World Professional Association for Transgender Health's (WPATH) guidance as "junk science".
The order states that the U.S. Federal Government will not "fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called 'transition' of a child from one sex to another". The provisions include: Directing the United States Department of Health and Human Services to review the terms of insurance under Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act to end certain gender affirming care; Telling federal agencies providing federal grants to medical institutions to make sure those institutions were not carrying out any gender-related procedures; Protecting whistleblowers who report on institutions that provide gender affirming care in violation of the executive order.
NBC News described the language in the executive order as inflammatory and noted that major medical associations support access to transgender health care for minors.
In response, some hospitals paused providing gender-affirming care for minors, while others continued. Some hospitals cancelled care for even those older than 19. Attorney generals from 15 states said their states are committed to continuing to provide gender-affirming care to minors. Multiple groups filed lawsuits challenging the legality of the executive order. In response to one of the lawsuits, several federal judges issued injunctions blocking the government from withholding federal funds from hospitals that provide gender affirming care to minors. Following the injunction, some hospitals that initially paused gender-affirming care for minors resumed the care.
In the summer of 2025, the Department of Justice began sending subpoenas to "over 20" hospitals demanding the full records of patients who received medical care under 19 – including their names, social security numbers, doctors' notes, and treatments prescribed. This practice continued into 2026, expanding to many more hospitals across the nation.
On October 30, 2025, NPR reported on proposed rules from the Department of Health and Human Services that would prohibit federal Medicaid reimbursement for medical care provided to transgender patients under 18, and block Medicaid and Medicare funding for any services at hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to children. NPR also highlighted that at the time of writing gender-affirming care for children was already banned in 27 states.
The executive order is similar to a portion of Project 2025 that called for withdrawing "guidance issued under the Biden Administration concerning sexual orientation and gender identity under Section 1557" of the Affordable Care Act.
Executive Order 14190
On January 29, 2025, Trump signed an executive order "Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling". Under the order, law enforcement are directed to conduct investigations of educational or education-related institutions suspected of involvement in the "instruction, advancement, or promotion of gender ideology" declaring such ideas to be anti-American and subversive.