Federal agencies told to implement transgender bathroom ban as Trump's DEI attacks continue

Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. The Trump administration ordered that the ban must be in place by Friday, also pushing agencies to fire anyone working on “gender ideology.” The directive is part of an effort to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order that states the government recognizes only two sexes. A memo was sent Wednesday by the Office of Personnel Management to department leaders, asking them to review and put an end to programs, grants, contracts, and media that “promote or inculcate gender ideology.” The administration has defined gender ideology as “an ever-shifting concept of self-assessed gender identity.” open image in gallery The Trump administration has issued several executive orders targeting transgender rights The memo issued on Wednesday, obtained by The Hill, states that agency leaders should put workers with a job description that involves “promoting gender ideology” on paid leave by 5 p.m. E.T. The order also calls for the cancellation of training and employee resource groups that have previously “promoted gender ideology” as well as ensuring documents, policies and forms use the term “sex” instead of “gender.” Bathroom and other “intimate spaces” must be “designated by biological sex and not gender identity,” the memo states. The memo also reveals the administration’s next steps in enforcing the January 20 executive order from Trump, stating that the federal government will only recognize two genders — male and female — which “are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality.” The order states that it will protect women and return “biological truth to the federal government.” It orders federal officials to “enforce laws governing sex-based rights, protections, opportunities, and accommodations to protect men and women as biologically distinct sexes.” “Agencies shall take all necessary steps, as permitted by law, to end the Federal funding of gender ideology,” the order states.