‘It’s an attack on the LGBTQ community’: Central Alabama Pride president responds to day one executive order proclaiming two genders
By Bryce Oselen, Taylor Lang
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WASHINGTON, Alabama (WVTM) — A new executive order signed by President Donald Trump on his first day in office declares only two genders in the United States: male and female.
The order would reverse efforts by the Biden administration to broaden gender identity designations, including on passports.
As of 2022, U.S. citizens have been able to select “X” as their gender marker on passports. One’s marker does not need to match the gender on citizenship documents or photo ID, nor is medical documentation needed to change one’s gender, according to the State Department.
“As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female,” Trump said during his inaugural address Monday, taking an early step to fulfill one of his culture war campaign promises.
The federal government would also shift from using the term “gender” to “sex,” and that sex would be “an individual’s immutable biological classification,” the official said.
Central Alabama Pride President Josh Coleman said he is not happy and that it singles out the transgender community.
“This is only an attack on the LGBTQ community, plain and simple,” Coleman said.
The order aims to require the federal government to use the word “sex” instead of “gender,” and it directs the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security to ensure that official government documents such as passports and visas reflect a person’s “sex” accurately.
All government agencies would ensure that official documents, including passports and visas, “reflect sex accurately,” a Trump administration official told reporters Monday. Also, departments running federal prisons, migrant shelters, rape shelters and other “intimate spaces” would be directed to protect single-sex spaces for privacy. And employee records would also adhere to the executive order, as would federal departments’ messaging.
“My message to folks in the community is that you’re loved, you’re accepted, you have people here locally who are and want to be your family, who want to be your community,” Coleman said.
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