Update! In a major win for those committed to the principles of a colorblind society, Donald Trump has revoked Lyndon Johnson’s Executive Order 11246 of September 24, 1965. The revocation of this and a myriad of other orders is detailed here: “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity.” To summarize, federal civil-rights laws protect Americans from discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, fostering equality of opportunity. Yet institutions across society, including the federal government and major industries, implement race- and sex-based preferences under the banner of “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) or “diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility” (DEIA). These practices often violate civil-rights laws, undermining national unity, individual merit, and traditional values like hard work and excellence. They also pose risks to safety by prioritizing identity over qualifications in critical sectors like government, medicine, and law enforcement. Trump’s order reaffirms and enforces civil-rights laws by eliminating unlawful discrimination and preferences. To put the matter succiently, affirmative action has been rescinded.
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“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” ―George Orwell
I generally don’t like government assertions of the truth. Indeed, I have in the past been highly critical of state affirmation of particular historical interpretations, for example the official recognition of genocides in law. Such affirmations raise the problematic of historical revisionism, a problematic captured by George Orwell in Nineteen Eighty-Four, which was based on the actual practice in the Soviet Union under Stalin. However, considering the way its synonym “gender” has been repurposed by ideologues to deny its binary and immutability nature, Trump’s executive order affirming the scientific fact of gender, mandating the exclusive use of the term “sex” to refer to this reality in law and policy, is not merely affirming basic biology but affirming the empirical premise upon which such law and policy is formed and implemented. The executive order is therefore not analogous to an order affirming the status of Pluto as a plant or other astronomical disputes among physicists.
Summarizing the order, “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government” emphasizes the recognition of sex as a fundamental and immutable reality, explicitly rejecting the concept of “gender identity” as a basis for legal and policy decisions and forbidding the use of gender ideology in determine matters pertaining to gender. It declares the federal government’s commitment to protecting sex-based distinctions in American institutions, laws, and policies, arguing that such measures are necessary to safeguard women’s rights, dignity, and safety. The order mandates the enforcement of sex-based definitions for terms, namely “male,” “female,” “man,” and “woman,” while prohibiting the promotion or recognition of “gender ideology” in federal agencies.
It’s sad that gender ideology has become so pervasive that a president finds it necessary to assert the truth that there are only two genders. But it is necessary. In federal agencies, a demand is made upon free people that they misgender others based on gender ideology. As I document in my April 2023 essay NIH and the Tyranny of Compelled Speech, if a man says he’s a woman, then the NIH requires his mangers and colleagues to refer to him by feminine pronouns. From the Sexual & Gender Minority Research Office of the National Institutes of Health (NIH): “Intentional refusal to use someone’s correct pronouns is equivalent to harassment and a violation of one’s civil rights” (emphasis mine). This means that using objectively correct pronouns to refer to individuals is subject to disciplinary proceedings. The NIH rule sets usage and meaning on their heads and punishes individuals for refusing to comply with an Orwellian inversion. Because such a man is a male and cannot be a female, the NIH is ordering public employees to lie. This tyranny must end. It is an affront to free conscience, speech, and writing.
The order directs federal agencies to revise forms, guidance, and regulations to align with these definitions and rescind prior policies inconsistent with this approach, crucially including those supporting gender identity as a basis for discrimination protections. Additionally, the order prioritizes maintaining single-sex spaces, such as prisons and shelters, based on sex, and prohibits federal funding for medical procedures that alter appearance to conform to a different gender identity. The order thus restores the First Amendment and affirms the necessity of sex-based rights. Put another way, it affirms the basic civil rights of Americans working in public institutions.
President Donald Trump on Monday also signed an executive order proclaiming that the US government will end diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs in federal agencies. “Initial Rescissions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions” rescinds numerous directives and orders from the previous administration, which the Trump administration correctly determines promotes divisive and unlawful initiatives. The order emphasizes a return to principles of merit, equality, and common sense within the federal government. It directs agency heads to immediately end the implementation of DEI-related policies, mandates reviews of federal actions tied to the rescinded orders, and tasks the Domestic Policy Council, National Economic Council, and National Security Advisor with identifying additional measures to rescind or replace. Once more, President Trump has affirmed the basis civil rights of Americans working in public institutions.
The rescinding of executive orders related to DEI and those specifically addressing gender identity reflects a broader effort to reverse policies that incorporate principles of identity-based equity, which include gender ideology as a component of DEI. DEI frameworks typically emphasize addressing systemic inequities across various demographic factors, including race, gender, sexual orientation, and gender identity. By targeting DEI as a whole, the order inherently encompasses policies related to gender identity, as it is a key aspect of these frameworks. By removing both, the administration signals an intent to move away from policies promoting identity-based protections and accommodations in federal governance. This shift aligns with Trump’s stated purpose of prioritizing “merit” and “equality” over what his administration correctly views as divisive or preferential policies rooted in identity-based considerations. The linkage is thus conceptual and practical: eliminating DEI policies involves dismantling broader systems and protections for gender identity within federal practices.
The violation of Americans’ civil rights is what trans activists intend when they demand “trans rights.” The construct means that trans identifying persons claim a right—really a privilege—that supersedes the fundamental civil and human rights to conscience, speech, publishing, and association to which all Americans are entitled. It is on the assertion of this privilege that men claim a right to engage and enter female-only activities, occupations, and spaces. The fallacious construct of “gender identity” is thus a means by which boys and men violate the rights of girls and women. Nobody is entitled to privilege of this kind. Trans identifying people have the same rights as the rest of population. No more. No less. The elimination of DEI bears directly on the matter. DEI is the program that, among other things, socializes the lies that deny the truth of gender.
The path out of madness begins with the assertion of plain truths. To make these assertions, we must be free to speak and write them. It is the role of the Executive of the United States to make sure that our rights to conscience, speech, and writing are preserved. The Orwell quote at the top of this essay, taken from Nineteen Eighty-Four, underscores how the Party—today in America that is the Establishment, the Administrative State, represented primarily by the Democratic Party—seeks to obliterate objective truth—and seeks to accomplish this by requiring public employees to repeat the lies that gender is subjective and depends on the nonfalsifiable assertions of individuals. By clarifying that sex is a biological matter, Trump returns the determination of gender to the realm of the falsifiable. And by eliminating DEI, Trump keeps the promise of the Constitution that the individual will be judged on his merits and treated equally before the law, entitled to the rights he shares with his fellow citizens.
freedom and reason 