How will Donald Trump’s anti-trans executive order affect Californians? ‘A lot of unknowns’

President Donald Trump on Monday signed a sweeping executive order relating to the rights of transgender people, making good on his campaign promise to “end this transgender lunacy” on his first day in office.

The order is as broad as it is vague, leaving the trans community, politicians, medical providers, and legal experts uncertain about what will come next.

Promises to ban federal funding on institutions that “promote gender ideology” provide little legal clarity, while guidelines for denying gender-affirming health care for transgender inmates, removing “nonbinary” and “other” genders from federal identification documents, and rolling back Biden-era resources for the trans community will have more immediate, tangible consequences, even in the state of California, a self-proclaimed sanctuary for the trans community.

“There are a lot of unknowns right now, which is where a lot of community fear is coming out,” said Alexis Sanchez, Deputy Chief Program Officer of Advocacy at the Sacramento LGBT Community Center in midtown.

“The main thing we have been trying to do is inform the community,” she said. “There’s a lot of fear in the community and uncertainty ... but executive orders don’t spell out mechanisms for how they’ll be enforced, they are just an outline of policy priorities.”

Activists and politicians alike are prepared to stand by transgender Californians.

“This is a very, very dangerous time for the trans community and their families, and it’s so important that we double down on our support,” said Congressman Robert Garcia, D-Long Beach.

“In California we have a history of supporting all people and uplifting the entire LGBTQ community ... trans people deserve basic human rights like anybody else.”

Defining ‘gender identity’ and ‘gender ideology’

One of the most consequential actions the Trump Administration took with this executive order was effectively erasing the existence of transgender people at the legal level.

“’Sex’ is not a synonym for and does not include the concept of ‘gender identity,’” the order reads. “’Gender identity’ reflects a fully internal and subjective sense of self, disconnected from biological reality and sex and existing on an infinite continuum, that does not provide a meaningful basis for identification and cannot be recognized as a replacement for sex.”

Much of the Trump Administration’s justification for the order is grounded in the idea that trans people, specifically trans women, are a threat to women. (Trans people are four times more likely to be victims of a violent crime.)

The order, “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” claims that “efforts to eradicate the biological reality of sex fundamentally attack women by depriving them of their dignity, safety, and well-being. The erasure of sex in language and policy has a corrosive impact not just on women but on the validity of the entire American system.”

The ramifications of this are far-reaching for trans people; extricating “gender identity” from “biological sex” could remove protections for trans women under Title IX and other federal statutes relating to gender equality. It is also a denial of what the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the broader scientific and medical communities know about gender dysphoria, the condition in which a person’s gender identity conflicts with their sex assigned at birth, and which gives a person a transgender identity.

“It’s no fun to have the new president of your country, on day one, issue an edict to erase who you are as a person,” said Lu Bunker, a Sacramento resident and author who served in the New Hampshire House of Representatives from 2018 to 2022, under the name Lisa Bunker — one of the first transgender people elected to office in the state.

“It’s an attack on the rights and the very existence of trans and nonbinary people. That’s upsetting and must be opposed,” Bunker said.

Sex, gender identity and gender expression are all protected classes in California, but now, at the federal level, there is legal precedence to exclude transgender people from federal discrimination protections by indicating that “biological sex” be the only defining factor.

Per the order, “’gender ideology’ replaces the biological category of sex with an ever-shifting concept of self-assessed gender identity, permitting the false claim that males can identify as and thus become women and vice versa, and requiring all institutions of society to regard this false claim as true.”

“What they mean,” Bunker said, “is this idea that the right clings to, that there are only men and only women and that that’s determined by your body at birth. That’s just not true. It’s based on a kind of 5th grade concept of biology, and they cling to that.”

The state of gender-affirming health care in California

Trump’s executive order ensures that “that no Federal funds are expended for any medical procedure, treatment, or drug for the purpose of conforming an inmate’s appearance to that of the opposite sex” in federal prisons.

Trump campaigned on this very issue and was quick to act on it.

There are 12 federal prisons in California, and four of them house female inmates.

The executive order does not apply to gender-affirming health care — which can include hormone therapy and surgery — for Californians outside of federal prisons.

Gender-affirming health care is legal in the state both for minors with parental consent as well as adults. The U.S. Supreme Court is currently hearing arguments about gender-affirming health care access for minors, and Trump has said before that he’d seek to ban it — but as of now, it remains legal and accessible in California.

Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, one of the largest providers of gender-affirming health care in the state, told The Bee it will continue to provide those medical services.

“As the largest and most trusted provider of gender-affirming health care statewide, the Planned Parenthood Affiliates in California want to reassure transgender and gender non-conforming people that their health center doors remain open and will continue to provide this essential health care to anyone seeking it — no matter who they are or where they call home.”

Worry over federal documents

The order indicates that the U.S. government will only recognize a person’s sex assigned at birth, and this extends to federal identification documents.

The order will require federal agencies, such as the State Department and Department of Homeland Security, to remove “nonbinary” or “other” gender options from passports, visas, birth certificates, and other forms of identification.

“The biggest question we’ve gotten is from folks scared that their identity documents are going to be revoked,” said Sanchez at the Sacramento LGBT Community Center.

According to White House press secretary Karoline Claire Leavitt, the order will not apply retroactively, and therefore won’t invalidate anyone’s current documents.

But for document renewals, “they just have to use their God-given sex, which was decided at birth,” said Leavitt.

In California, about 16,000 people identified themselves with the nonbinary “X” marker on their license between 2018, when it became possible to do so, and 2022.

What’s next?

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has already set aside $25 million for Attorney General Rob Bonta to challenge Trump’s unconstitutional or otherwise illegal policies in court.

But at the state and federal level, California’s politicians are preparing to push back.

“It’s clear that this Congress is not going to pass any protection to support trans people,” said Congressman Garcia. “So we have to, in our state with the help of the Governor and the Attorney General, we’ve got to act and take a lot of these issues to court.”

Attorney General Bonta has already filed a lawsuit against Trump’s unconstitutional executive order on birthright citizenship. The Bee reached out to the Attorney General’s office but did not receive a response in time for publication.

At the federal level, Garcia knows that a Democratic minority in Congress may cost them important protections for the trans community — but his platform is still valuable.

“It’s our job in Congress to continue to expose and bring awareness to lies — essentially to humanize people, and we’ve got to take these folks on.”

Specifically, he said, the likes of Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green, R-Georgia, “who literally has a discriminatory sign about trans people outside of her office.”

“We have a responsibility,” Garcia said, “to tell stories of people who are being impacted.”

On the ground, activists and community members are prepared to show up, too.

Bunker is leading the charge with their Unitarian Universalist congregation to host and welcome “gender refugees” from Republican states where it may no longer be safe to be transgender.

At the Sacramento LGBT Community Center, Sanchez said the center will do what it’s always done.

“Our job at the center is to make sure all LGBTQ people, but especially trans people, can thrive. We connect them to health services, workforce resources, a sense of community through events, and help them anyway that we can.”

This story was originally published January 23, 2025 at 9:38 AM.