ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Also on his first day in office, President Trump signed an executive action stating that the U.S. government will now recognize only two sexes, male and female. The directive takes aim at what it describes as gender ideology extremism, and it tries to do away with some federal programs and policies designed for transgender people. NPR political correspondent Sarah McCammon is here in the studio to explain. Hi, Sarah.
SARAH MCCAMMON, BYLINE: Hi there.
SHAPIRO: What's in this executive action?
MCCAMMON: Well, the Trump administration, as you said, will now recognize two sexes, male and female, which it describes as not changeable. It requires the word sex to be used rather than gender in federal documents. And this means things like travel documents and personnel records will have to reflect a person's birth sex, not their gender identity. It's not clear how that will play out for people who already have these documents or need to change them. The Trump administration says the goal is to protect women's-only spaces, including rape shelters and prisons. I talked to Beth Parlato, with the Independent Women's Forum, a conservative group that's advised Trump administration officials on this policy.
BETH PARLATO: When you allow men to invade women's private spaces, it's dangerous. Our safety is at issue. It takes away opportunities. It takes away scholarships. And women - when I already said safety - I mean, women get hurt.
SHAPIRO: Well, how are transgender rights groups reacting to this?
MCCAMMON: Well, they say this action sends a concerning signal about the direction the Trump administration wants to go when it comes to transgender rights, and they say it could create a lot of confusion around things like passports and visas. They warn it could open the door to invasive questions about people's medical history. And Fatima Goss Graves, with the National Women's Law Center, argues that it won't make women safer.
FATIMA GOSS GRAVES: In fact, it will do the opposite - it will endanger women and girls by aggressively ensuring that spaces that are private are now spaces of investigation.
MCCAMMON: And Ari, advocates also worry about the impact on transgender people in federal prisons who receive gender-affirming care such as hormone therapy. Chase Strangio is with the ACLU.
CHASE STRANGIO: It's absolutely catastrophic because you're not talking about a circumstance where someone could go and try to get the health care through another means. It means totally and completely taking away the ability, you know, for them to access this medical care.
MCCAMMON: And the ACLU says they may file legal challenges as these things play out if they believe transgender people's rights are being violated as a result.
SHAPIRO: This action applies to the federal government, and, of course, some states have policies designed to protect the rights of transgender people. So what happens if those policies conflict?
MCCAMMON: Right. I mean, in some cases, supporters of this Trump administration policy would welcome legal fights over it between the states and the federal government. Sharon Byrne is with the Women's Liberation Front, which describes itself as a radical feminist organization and which supports this executive action. She points to states like California, which have workplace laws allowing transgender people to use restrooms that correspond with their gender identity that may now be in conflict with the new federal policy.
SHARON BYRNE: What could happen is, if you're a woman in California and you're upset about that situation, you would bring a complaint to the federal EEOC, who would back up your right to have a single-sex bathroom. So you can see that this is going to set up what could be a lot of legal complaints where these laws are in conflict.
MCCAMMON: She thinks the federal government could put pressure on states through mechanisms like that or like tying federal funding for things like prisons to whether or not states are conforming to the Trump policy.
SHAPIRO: This was one of so many actions that President Trump took on Day 1. Why do you think this was a top priority for him?
MCCAMMON: Well, Republicans, as you may remember, campaigned on this issue in the final weeks before the 2024 election. They spent millions of dollars on ads designed to portray Democrats as taking their support for transgender rights to an extreme. And Republicans recognize that, at least on some aspects of this complex issue, public opinion was on their side. For example, polls suggests that a majority of Americans oppose transgender athletes competing in women's sports. Republicans used this issue to mobilize voters, and now Trump is rewarding them for that.
SHAPIRO: That is NPR political correspondent Sarah McCammon. Thank you.
MCCAMMON: Thank you.
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