On January 20, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order called “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.” The order says that transgender people and their allies “deny the biological reality of sex” and a claim that the falsehood of transgender people “permit men to self-identify as women and gain to intimate single-sex spaces and activities designed for women, from women’s domestic abuse shelters to women’s workplace showers.”
This language has been discussed in the last few days, but most of it focuses on transgender people and not non-binary people. Non-binary people also fall under the trans identity umbrella. The order goes on to define women as “human females” and men as “human males”. The biggest issue is Section 2 (f) and (g) which says in part: “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.”
The problem may be for people of cultures who recognize more than just two genders. This is not true of other cultures.
Places in the world that recognize more than two genders. PBS Independent Lens
Among indigenous groups of people, there has been a history of those cultures embracing other genders that are not just men and women, but third, fourth, and even more genders. Sometimes these genders can blend men and women together or take on social roles from both men and women. Since the beginning of the 21st century, we have seen more trans people and non-binary people coming out, though they have always been around.
Some examples include the Mangaiko among the Mbo people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the third gender in the Philippines, the X-Gender in Japan which has been around since the latter 1990s, the Tida wena among the Warao people of Venezuela, and the Two Spirit umbrella term for indigenous people in North America. In numerous cultures, there are mentions of a third sex from Egypt and Mesopotamia to Thailand, to the Jewish Diaspora, to the early Islamic world and Inuit people in the Canadian Arctic.
With this language from the federal government, however, it may lead immigrants that identify as part of the LGBTQ+ community to ask what they can do to be able to emigrate to the United States, especially if they identify as a third gender.
There are now 15 states along with Washington, D.C., with transgender/non-binary protections. It is important to stress that on federal government documents, there are not options for “Other” for gender identity. But among the states that are safe for LGBTQ+ people, they do offer nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ parents, LGBTQ-Inclusive definitions, nondiscrimination laws on the state level related to employment, housing, public accommodations, credit and lending, and polices for state employees. There is also a ban on the Panic Defense and the Hate Crime Laws in some of these state cover LGBTQ+ people. You can also change your gender identity marker on your driver’s license.
The states who have these protections will have to lead the way on how to treat LGBTQ+ people and those who identity as not either a man or a woman. Your lawyer can help you too. You can ask them where it is safe to go in the United States and ask if they have resources for you to relocate, if you do not live in a state that has LGBTQ+ protections.
On January 24, 2025, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has directed the State Department to freeze applications with X selected as the gender identifier. This also applies to those trying to change their gender markers on existing passports. X is used by non-binary, intersex, and other gender nonconforming people. This option was helpful for those with a third gender that is not male or female. The mandate also orders the suspension of any passport applications for persons who did not mark either “male” or “female” in the gender section. It also identifies biological sex as the term that will be used going forward, noting: “The policy of the United States is that an individual’s sex is not changeable.”
The policy will not suspend any currently-active passports or those issued with X under the previous Biden Administration. Now when your passport is to be renewed, people that are neither male or female have to pick one of those options when applying. When asked about it, the State Department said “The State Department declined to comment on the matter, saying it “does not comment on leaked internal documents.”