Anti-Trans Measures Don’t Just Target Transgender Men and Women – A Sociologist Explains How ‘Male’ or ‘Female’ Categories Miss the Mark for Nonbinary Americans

Since his inauguration in January 2025, President Donald Trump has issued several executive orders that seek to limit federal recognition of transgender people. These orders have attempted to ban transgender athletes from women’s sports, require identity documents to label people as biologically male or female, bar federal funding for gender-affirming care for minors and bar transgender people from serving in the military.

The common element in each of these policies is a promise from Trump’s inaugural speech that his administration would recognize only two genders: male and female.

These executive orders make life difficult for transgender people, many of whom do identify as women or men, just not the sex they were assigned at birth. Apart from that, however, the emphasis on two and only two genders denies the existence of another group that is often misunderstood: nonbinary people.