Presidential Documents

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


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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 singlesex 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. 


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(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 Educacio ́n de EE.UU. Apoyar a los jo ́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); 


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(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. 

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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