This week, the Trump administration instructed all federal agencies to remove information from their websites pertaining to "gender ideology. ET with an executive order that says its aim is "defending women from gender ideology extremism. That memo laid out "steps to end federal funding of gender ideology. While "gender ideology" is not sharply defined, Trump and other transgender rights opponents have used the phrase to argue against the idea that people can identify with a gender that does not match the sex they were assigned at birth.
Indeed, the executive order calls it a "false claim that males can identify as and thus become women and vice versa. For a time on Friday evening, the entire Census. Attempting to reach the Census Bureau's Results page showed part of the site was down for maintenance. Its page on sexual orientation and gender identity was still down early Saturday afternoon.
The examples proliferated on social media, with academics, journalists and activists noting that basic information had disappeared from government websites. Many who support transgender rights oppose using the phrase "gender ideology," as it implies that being transgender is a belief system, as opposed to an identity. This week's "gender ideology" memo wasn't the only order from the Trump administration to remove information from websites. In another memo implementing an executive order aimed at "ending radical and wasteful government DEI programs," Ezell instructed agencies to "Take down all outward facing media websites, social media accounts, etc.
When asked Friday about the removal of "DEI" information from websites, Trump said, "It doesn't sound like a bad idea to me. DEI would have ruined our country, and now it's dead. The "Defending Women" executive order, and Ezell's resulting memo, go well beyond policing information on government websites.
Ezell also instructed agencies to "review all agency programs, contracts, and grants, and terminate any that promote or inculcate gender ideology," and also to make sure that forms ask for respondents' "sex" and not their "gender. The memo additionally calls on agencies to make sure that "intimate spaces" are "designated by biological sex and not gender identity," which could mean transgender and nonbinary employees will be restricted in which bathrooms they use.
