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[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 19 (Thursday, January 30, 2025)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 8615-8618]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2025-02090]



                        Presidential Documents 



Federal Register / Vol. 90 , No. 19 / Thursday, January 30, 2025 / 
Presidential Documents

[[Page 8615]]

                Executive Order 14168 of January 20, 2025

                
Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism 
                and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal 
                Government

                By the authority vested in me as President by the 
                Constitution and the laws of the United States of 
                America, including section 7301 of title 5, United 
                States Code, it is hereby ordered:

                Section 1. Purpose. Across the country, ideologues who 
                deny the biological reality of sex have increasingly 
                used legal and other socially coercive means to permit 
                men to self-identify as women and gain access to 
                intimate single-sex spaces and activities designed for 
                women, from women's domestic abuse shelters to women's 
                workplace showers. This is wrong. 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. Basing Federal 
                policy on truth is critical to scientific inquiry, 
                public safety, morale, and trust in government itself.

                This unhealthy road is paved by an ongoing and 
                purposeful attack against the ordinary and longstanding 
                use and understanding of biological and scientific 
                terms, replacing the immutable biological reality of 
                sex with an internal, fluid, and subjective sense of 
                self unmoored from biological facts. Invalidating the 
                true and biological category of ``woman'' improperly 
                transforms laws and policies designed to protect sex-
                based opportunities into laws and policies that 
                undermine them, replacing longstanding, cherished legal 
                rights and values with an identity-based, inchoate 
                social concept.

                Accordingly, my Administration will defend women's 
                rights and protect freedom of conscience by using clear 
                and accurate language and policies that recognize women 
                are biologically female, and men are biologically male.

                Sec. 2. Policy and Definitions. It is the policy of the 
                United States to recognize two sexes, male and female. 
                These sexes are not changeable and are grounded in 
                fundamental and incontrovertible reality. Under my 
                direction, the Executive Branch will enforce all sex-
                protective laws to promote this reality, and the 
                following definitions shall govern all Executive 
                interpretation of and application of Federal law and 
                administration policy:

                    (a) ``Sex'' shall refer to an individual's 
                immutable biological classification as either male or 
                female. ``Sex'' is not a synonym for and does not 
                include the concept of ``gender identity.''
                    (b) ``Women'' or ``woman'' and ``girls'' or 
                ``girl'' shall mean adult and juvenile human females, 
                respectively.
                    (c) ``Men'' or ``man'' and ``boys'' or ``boy'' 
                shall mean adult and juvenile human males, 
                respectively.
                    (d) ``Female'' means a person belonging, at 
                conception, to the sex that produces the large 
                reproductive cell.
                    (e) ``Male'' means a person belonging, at 
                conception, to the sex that produces the small 
                reproductive cell.
                    (f) ``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.

[[Page 8616]]

                Gender ideology includes the idea that there is a vast 
                spectrum of genders that are disconnected from one's 
                sex. Gender ideology is internally inconsistent, in 
                that it diminishes sex as an identifiable or useful 
                category but nevertheless maintains that it is possible 
                for a person to be born in the wrong sexed body.
                    (g) ``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.

                Sec. 3. Recognizing Women Are Biologically Distinct 
                From Men. (a) Within 30 days of the date of this order, 
                the Secretary of Health and Human Services shall 
                provide to the U.S. Government, external partners, and 
                the public clear guidance expanding on the sex-based 
                definitions set forth in this order.

                    (b) Each agency and all Federal employees shall 
                enforce laws governing sex-based rights, protections, 
                opportunities, and accommodations to protect men and 
                women as biologically distinct sexes. Each agency 
                should therefore give the terms ``sex'', ``male'', 
                ``female'', ``men'', ``women'', ``boys'' and ``girls'' 
                the meanings set forth in section 2 of this order when 
                interpreting or applying statutes, regulations, or 
                guidance and in all other official agency business, 
                documents, and communications.
                    (c) When administering or enforcing sex-based 
                distinctions, every agency and all Federal employees 
                acting in an official capacity on behalf of their 
                agency shall use the term ``sex'' and not ``gender'' in 
                all applicable Federal policies and documents.
                    (d) The Secretaries of State and Homeland Security, 
                and the Director of the Office of Personnel Management, 
                shall implement changes to require that government-
                issued identification documents, including passports, 
                visas, and Global Entry cards, accurately reflect the 
                holder's sex, as defined under section 2 of this order; 
                and the Director of the Office of Personnel Management 
                shall ensure that applicable personnel records 
                accurately report Federal employees' sex, as defined by 
                section 2 of this order.
                    (e) Agencies shall remove all statements, policies, 
                regulations, forms, communications, or other internal 
                and external messages that promote or otherwise 
                inculcate gender ideology, and shall cease issuing such 
                statements, policies, regulations, forms, 
                communications or other messages. Agency forms that 
                require an individual's sex shall list male or female, 
                and shall not request gender identity. Agencies shall 
                take all necessary steps, as permitted by law, to end 
                the Federal funding of gender ideology.
                    (f) The prior Administration argued that the 
                Supreme Court's decision in Bostock v. Clayton County 
                (2020), which addressed Title VII of the Civil Rights 
                Act of 1964, requires gender identity-based access to 
                single-sex spaces under, for example, Title IX of the 
                Educational Amendments Act. This position is legally 
                untenable and has harmed women. The Attorney General 
                shall therefore immediately issue guidance to agencies 
                to correct the misapplication of the Supreme Court's 
                decision in Bostock v. Clayton County (2020) to sex-
                based distinctions in agency activities. In addition, 
                the Attorney General shall issue guidance and assist 
                agencies in protecting sex-based distinctions, which 
                are explicitly permitted under Constitutional and 
                statutory precedent.
                    (g) Federal funds shall not be used to promote 
                gender ideology. Each agency shall assess grant 
                conditions and grantee preferences and ensure grant 
                funds do not promote gender ideology.

                Sec. 4. Privacy in Intimate Spaces. (a) The Attorney 
                General and Secretary of Homeland Security shall ensure 
                that males are not detained in women's prisons or 
                housed in women's detention centers, including through 
                amendment, as necessary, of Part 115.41 of title 28, 
                Code of Federal Regulations and interpretation guidance 
                regarding the Americans with Disabilities Act.

[[Page 8617]]

                    (b) The Secretary of Housing and Urban Development 
                shall prepare and submit for notice and comment 
                rulemaking a policy to rescind the final rule entitled 
                ``Equal Access in Accordance with an Individual's 
                Gender Identity in Community Planning and Development 
                Programs'' of September 21, 2016, 81 FR 64763, and 
                shall submit for public comment a policy protecting 
                women seeking single-sex rape shelters.
                    (c) The Attorney General shall ensure that the 
                Bureau of Prisons revises its policies concerning 
                medical care to be consistent with this order, and 
                shall ensure 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.
                    (d) Agencies shall effectuate this policy by taking 
                appropriate action to ensure that intimate spaces 
                designated for women, girls, or females (or for men, 
                boys, or males) are designated by sex and not identity.

                Sec. 5. Protecting Rights. The Attorney General shall 
                issue guidance to ensure the freedom to express the 
                binary nature of sex and the right to single-sex spaces 
                in workplaces and federally funded entities covered by 
                the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In accordance with that 
                guidance, the Attorney General, the Secretary of Labor, 
                the General Counsel and Chair of the Equal Employment 
                Opportunity Commission, and each other agency head with 
                enforcement responsibilities under the Civil Rights Act 
                shall prioritize investigations and litigation to 
                enforce the rights and freedoms identified.

                Sec. 6. Bill Text. Within 30 days of the date of this 
                order, the Assistant to the President for Legislative 
                Affairs shall present to the President proposed bill 
                text to codify the definitions in this order.

                Sec. 7. Agency Implementation and Reporting. (a) Within 
                120 days of the date of this order, each agency head 
                shall submit an update on implementation of this order 
                to the President, through the Director of the Office of 
                Management and Budget. That update shall address:

(i) changes to agency documents, including regulations, guidance, forms, 
and communications, made to comply with this order; and

(ii) agency-imposed requirements on federally funded entities, including 
contractors, to achieve the policy of this order.

                    (b) The requirements of this order supersede 
                conflicting provisions in any previous Executive Orders 
                or Presidential Memoranda, including but not limited to 
                Executive Orders 13988 of January 20, 2021, 14004 of 
                January 25, 2021, 14020 and 14021 of March 8, 2021, and 
                14075 of June 15, 2022. These Executive Orders are 
                hereby rescinded, and the White House Gender Policy 
                Council established by Executive Order 14020 is 
                dissolved.
                    (c) Each agency head shall promptly rescind all 
                guidance documents inconsistent with the requirements 
                of this order or the Attorney General's guidance issued 
                pursuant to this order, or rescind such parts of such 
                documents that are inconsistent in such manner. Such 
                documents include, but are not limited to:

(i) ``The White House Toolkit on Transgender Equality'';

(ii) the Department of Education's guidance documents including:

  (A) ``2024 Title IX Regulations: Pointers for Implementation'' (July 
2024);

  (B) ``U.S. Department of Education Toolkit: Creating Inclusive and 
Nondiscriminatory School Environments for LGBTQI+ Students'';

  (C) ``U.S. Department of Education Supporting LGBTQI+ Youth and Families 
in School'' (June 21, 2023);

  (D) ``Departamento de Educaci[oacute]n de EE.UU. Apoyar a los 
j[oacute]venes y familias LGBTQI+ en la escuela'' (June 21, 2023);

  (E) ``Supporting Intersex Students: A Resource for Students, Families, 
and Educators'' (October 2021);

  (F) ``Supporting Transgender Youth in School'' (June 2021);

[[Page 8618]]

  (G) ``Letter to Educators on Title IX's 49th Anniversary'' (June 23, 
2021);

  (H) ``Confronting Anti-LGBTQI+ Harassment in Schools: A Resource for 
Students and Families'' (June 2021);

  (I) ``Enforcement of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 With 
Respect to Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity 
in Light of Bostock v. Clayton County'' (June 22, 2021);

  (J) ``Education in a Pandemic: The Disparate Impacts of COVID-19 on 
America's Students'' (June 9, 2021); and

  (K) ``Back-to-School Message for Transgender Students from the U.S. Depts 
of Justice, Education, and HHS'' (Aug. 17, 2021);

(iii) the Attorney General's Memorandum of March 26, 2021 entitled 
``Application of Bostock v. Clayton County to Title IX of the Education 
Amendments of 1972''; and

(iv) the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's ``Enforcement Guidance 
on Harassment in the Workplace'' (April 29, 2024).

                Sec. 8. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order 
                shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:

(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or 
the head thereof; or

(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget 
relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.

                    (b) This order shall be implemented consistent with 
                applicable law and subject to the availability of 
                appropriations.
                    (c) This order is not intended to, and does not, 
                create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, 
                enforceable at law or in equity by any party against 
                the United States, its departments, agencies, or 
                entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any 
                other person.
                    (d) If any provision of this order, or the 
                application of any provision to any person or 
                circumstance, is held to be invalid, the remainder of 
                this order and the application of its provisions to any 
                other persons or circumstances shall not be affected 
                thereby.
                
                
                    (Presidential Sig.)

                THE WHITE HOUSE,

                    January 20, 2025.

[FR Doc. 2025-02090
Filed 1-29-25; 11:15 am]
Billing code 3395-F4-P
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