in effect
This is Executive Order 14168, signed January 20, 2025, a directive from the President to federal agencies. It orders the executive branch to officially recognize only two sexes—male and female—and to apply a fixed set of definitions for terms like “sex,” “woman,” and “man” when interpreting and enforcing federal law. It also rescinds several earlier executive orders on gender identity.
The order sets binding federal definitions: “sex” means biological classification as male or female determined at conception, and is treated as separate from “gender identity.” Within 30 days, the Department of Health and Human Services must issue guidance expanding on these definitions, and the Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs must present proposed bill text to codify them. Government-issued IDs—including passports, visas, and Global Entry cards—and federal personnel records must reflect sex as defined here; agency forms must list male or female and not request gender identity. The Attorney General must issue guidance narrowing the application of the Supreme Court’s Bostock decision to sex-based agency policies, and agencies must stop federal funding that “promotes gender ideology,” keep males out of women’s prisons and detention centers, and rescind the 2016 HUD Equal Access rule through notice-and-comment rulemaking. Agency heads must report on implementation within 120 days, and the order rescinds Executive Orders 13988, 14004, 14020, 14021, and 14075 and dissolves the White House Gender Policy Council.
All federal agencies and employees must follow the new definitions in their documents, forms, and enforcement work, and federally funded contractors and grantees may face new requirements tied to this policy. Individuals applying for or holding government IDs, transgender people (including federal inmates, whose housing and medical care are addressed), and recipients of federal grants are directly touched by the changes. The order states it creates no legal rights enforceable against the government and must be carried out consistent with existing law and available funding.