The Trump administration’s massive crackdown on gender ideology across the U.S. has left some activists reeling, CNN reported on Monday.
Multiple activists told the outlet that they have become discouraged by the administration’s sweeping efforts to dismantle gender ideology as part of a broader push to terminate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives across all federal government agencies, education and the private sector.
Brad Sears, the associate dean of public interest law at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Law (“UCLA Law”) and the Rand Schrader Distinguished Scholar of Law and Policy at the Williams Institute, told CNN that he thinks the Trump administration is attempting to “eliminate trans people from public life, and so every department seems to be trying to wipe out representation and space for trans people in the country.” (RELATED: Elite Medical School Allegedly Continuing Its DEI March Despite Trump EOs)
“They are true believers in binary gender and, I think, in traditional gender roles and are very aggressively trying to implement this agenda,” Sears added.
Sears has published multiple “research studies and articles” on LGBT and HIV discrimination and “has given hundreds of academic and community presentations on HIV/AIDS and LGBT legal issues,” according to UCLA Law’s website.
In January, President Donald Trump signed an executive order instructing his administration to “defend women’s rights and protect freedom of conscience by using clear and accurate language and policies that recognize women are biologically female, and men are biologically male.” In response to the executive order being signed, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management sent a Jan. 29 memo to all U.S. government agencies instructing them to “review all agency programs, contracts, and grants, and terminate any that promote or inculcate gender ideology.”
Kel O’Hara, a senior attorney for policy & education equity at Equal Rights Advocates, told CNN she believes that the Trump administration’s attempts to terminate transgender ideology in the U.S. have been “attacks on trans Americans.”
“I think these attacks on trans Americans are really just the canary in the coal mine for broader civil rights rollbacks. When we have the government stripping protections from one group, no one’s rights are secure,” O’Hara told CNN.”These attacks on transgender Americans, particularly transgender youth, they are using the community as a political pawn in a broader culture war and using that as a way to stage more sweeping attacks on marginalized communities.”
“This administration isn’t just rolling back protections for trans folks, it is fast-tracking a really deliberate and comprehensive campaign to erase transgender Americans from public life,” O’Hara added.
Moreover, Caleb Smith, director of LGBTQI+ Policy at the Center for American Progress, told CNN that federal agencies “writ large have been directed by the Trump administration to do something about trans people.” Smith also told the outlet he thinks that the Trump administration’s whole-of-government approach to rooting out transgender ideology can “exhaust folks and confuse folks.”
“The American people voiced a resounding Election Day mandate to restore common sense and reject the radical ideology that paved the way for irreversible child mutilation procedures and the undermining of girls’ sports by biological men across our country,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Kush Desai said in a statement emailed to CNN. “The Trump administration is committed to delivering on this mandate.”
About half of U.S. adults approve of Trump’s approach to transgenderism, according to an AP/NORC poll released May 10. Additionally, Democratic strategist James Carville said on July 9 that the Democratic Party needs to revamp its approach to transgender issues.
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