Keith Burns

Central to heteronormativity is a presupposition that people are “naturally” cisgender and heterosexual, and that values, laws, and institutions should be organized accordingly. Within this framework, gender and sexual nonconformity are framed as medical or psychological disorders and immoral perversions of religious teachings. Power structures are organized in ways that favor people who identify as cisgender and heterosexual (especially men) and marginalize people who identify with differing sexual and/or gender categories, or who otherwise fall outside of heteronormative standards.

Perhaps the most impressive feat of heteronormativity is its clever obfuscation of the fact that it, in and of itself, is a gender ideology, a set of social norms that requires continuous buy-in and cultural maintenance. Instead of owning this reality, people enforce heteronormativity by enmeshing its core assertions into what they feel are “irrefutable truths” about God and nature.

As part of a series of executive orders that have attempted to impose a Christian nationalist agenda, President Donald Trump declared: “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.” 

A quintessential example of heteronormativity, describing a binary sex as “incontrovertible reality” is a rhetorical device that ignores intersex people and fails to capture the complex cultural variations of gender. Phrases like this are frequently weaponized against the lived experiences of trans individuals and add force to policies that prohibit trans civil and legal protections. Simply put, the purpose of this executive order is to delegitimize and ultimately erase trans and gender nonconforming individuals from US society.

Wielding power through policing gender

Policing the boundaries of gender identity and punishing the expression of gender nonconformity is a hallmark of authoritarian governments. This is likely because control over such a personal and intimate aspect of one’s life allows for the wielding of greater political and structural power. A prime example of this is Nazi Germany, where Hitler and his followers constructed rigid gender norms and classification schemes that framed homosexuality and gender variance (particularly among men) as pathological and destructive to society. Tens of thousands of homosexual men and a small number of homosexual women were sent to concentration camps as part of the Holocaust’s broader antisemitic aims.

A more recent example is Russia, which, under the authoritarian control of Vladimir Putin, fosters an atmosphere of fear and oppression for its LGBTQ+ people. In addition to fostering a strongly negative public opinion about same-sex relationships and gender transitions, Russia provides no LGBTQ+ legal protections or laws against anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes, and it prohibits legal name changes and gender-transitioning care for trans people. In 2023, its Supreme Court designated the “international LGBT movement” as “extremist,” which has only exacerbated persecution and hate crimes against sexual and gender minorities.

Many conservative religions also authoritatively police the boundaries of sexual/gender identity and expression. Among other right-leaning US faiths, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) frames same-sex relations and gender transitions as sinful and oppositional to divine teachings. While its rhetoric about LGBTQ+ people has softened significantly in the past half-century, its current policies exclude people in same-sex relationships and those who have undergone a physical and/or social gender transition from central ecclesiastical privileges. 

These privileges include access to temple worship, participation in priesthood rituals, and appointment to leadership opportunities. In the Summer of 2024, LDS authorities implemented a more stringent crackdown on trans members, mandating specific bathroom usage, requiring trans individuals to attend gender-specific meetings according to their assigned biological sex, and barring trans adults from serving as teachers or working with children.

These types of policies reflect the persistent fearmongering common in today’s MAGA politics, which deceptively frames trans individuals as perpetrators of violence, particularly against children. In actuality, LGBTQ+ individuals, particularly youth, are victims of sexual violence far more often than the general population, and cisgender men commit sexual violence more frequently than all sexual and gender minority demographics combined. Donald Trump, himself convicted of sexual abuse, exemplifies this irony – he routinely disparages trans people and frames them as sexually predatory, when he himself has a long history of predatory behavior. 

The logical and ethical problems of legally enforcing a gender binary

If a cisgender binary truly were an “incontrovertible reality,” why then would it need to be enforced legally? This question exposes an inconvenient paradox that right-wing political and religious regimes seek to avoid. They rely on biological and religious claims of innate gender differences while contradictorily asserting the perpetual need to enforce the social and legal boundaries of gender expression. 

Trump’s executive order and religiopolitical sentiments like it portray gender as both biologically immutable and a shifting product of sociocultural and legal standards. You simply cannot have it both ways. As associate professor of religion at Kalamazoo College, Taylor Petrey, points out, “If biology was immutable, it wouldn’t need to be enforced.”

The very need to create laws and policies that assert a cisgender worldview reveals how fragile heteronormativity really is. After all, the presence and visibility of more diverse gender identities and expressions by no means threatens the legitimacy of long-existing cisgender and heterosexual identities. Categorically speaking, trans and gender nonconforming individuals pose no dangers to society and deserve a full measure of dignity and equality. 

Nevertheless, Donald Trump’s policies are emblematic of white, cisgender, heterosexual campaigns in the US that seek to preserve political power and privilege at all costs. And the anger and hatred that the MAGA movement expresses toward gender nonconformity is a symptom of deep fear and insecurity regarding increased equity and inclusion for people different from them. 

That is exactly why the Trump administration has obliterated Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs and initiatives. It is also why conspiracy theories describing school children being indoctrinated into trans identities and gender-affirming surgery are so widespread. Conspiracies are born out of fear and fragility, not out of compassion and clarity. Thus, Trump’s legislation that negates important legal protections for and attacks the legitimacy of gender minorities is not about promoting harmony and well-being in society, but about the preservation of power and a specific type of extremist political and religious identity.