In less than one week, Republicans have advanced legislation restricting transgender Americans' participation in sports and declared a federal definition of gender that excludes those who do not conform with their sex assigned at birth, setting the stage for policy attacks on LGBTQ+ rights and freedoms unlike anything the nation has seen before.
Almost immediately after taking office Monday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order hinging sex on biology and limiting it to male and female with respect to government documents and federal policy, fulfilling a campaign promise to restrict the rights of transgender Americans. Meanwhile, the House last Tuesday passed legislation banning transgender athletes from participating in women's and girls' sports. That bill, which is one of the first standalone anti-trans bills that a chamber of Congress has been able to advance since 2023, also established a definition of sex based solely on someone's "reproductive biology and genetics at birth."
