The Trump administration has issued a new mandate requiring all federal agencies to eliminate recognition of gender identity, reinforcing a rigid, binary definition of sex and gender throughout the executive branch by mid-August.

In a July 10 memorandum to department heads, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management directed agencies to implement Executive Order 14168, titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” by revoking gender-inclusive policies, disbanding diversity programs, and enforcing sex-based definitions in all personnel and facility protocols. Agencies have until August 11 to submit a detailed report to OPM outlining the steps taken to comply.

The Trump administration has framed the erasure of trans-inclusive policies as a return to “biological reality.” But for those living through the implications, it’s a dismantling of hard-won rights, cloaked in bureaucratic language and enforced with ruthless precision.

The order, one of the first of the second Trump administration, signed by President Donald Trump on Inauguration Day in January, declares that “sex is binary and unchangeable,” and denounces gender identity as a “radical new movement.” It replaces longstanding civil rights protections for transgenderworkers with language rooted in anti-LGBTQ+ political rhetoric. The memo claims that recognition of gender identity in federal policy “attacks the ordinary and longstanding use of biological and scientific terms,” and frames access to gender-aligned facilities as a threat to women’s safety.

For the millions of federal employees who have operated under inclusive workplace policies for the last decade, the message is clear: any acknowledgment of transgender identity is no longer permitted. All training materials, employee resource groups, identification documents, and facilities that refer to “gender” must now be revised to reflect “biological sex,” and even common features such as pronoun fields in email systems must be removed.

The directive arrives amid a broader crackdown across the federal government. Nowhere is that crackdown more visible, or more contested, than in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Since March, the Trump administration has barred the VA from providing gender-affirming care to transgender veterans, ending coverage for hormones, voice therapy, electrolysis, and access to gender-appropriate facilities. Providers were also instructed to take down any inclusive messaging and signage. A VA psychologist in Virginia resigned due to the agency’s change.

In response, an underground resistance has emerged within the VA system. “We’re building the underground as fast as we can,” a VA physician told The Advocate in June. Transgender patients and clinicians have described encrypted communications, off-the-books referrals, and quiet acts of defiance designed to preserve access to care without triggering retaliation. One senior doctor called the climate “McCarthyistic,” with employees facing investigation for something as simple as a rainbow pin. That doctor said they are wearing extra-inclusive wardrobe components as signals to patients.

In May, 116 VA clinicians across 21 states signed an open letter denouncing the anti-trans policies as “unethical” and “a betrayal of our veterans.” The clinicians warned that the rollback not only threatens lives but erodes the very mission of federal service: to protect, not punish, those who have sacrificed for the country.