Warning: This article contains discussion of discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community which some readers may find distressing.
Here's what Donald Trump has actually said about trans rights as Caitlyn Jenner’s statement on one of his latest executive order left people seriously surprised.
The order in question, which seeks to ban transgender athletes from competing on girls' and women's sports teams by denying federal funds for schools that allow it, was signed on Wednesday (5 February).
What did Donald Trump say about the ban?
Speaking from the White House, the 78-year-old Republican leader, who is also the first convicted felon to assume the presidential role, declared: "We will defend the proud tradition of female athletes.
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"From now on, women’s sports will be only for women. The war on women’s sports is over."
Trump went on to claim the order in question was part of a 'sweeping effort to reclaim our culture and our laws'.
The order directs the Education Department to inform schools that allowing transgender athletes to compete will put them in violation of the federal law banning sex discrimination in schools.
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Under the current law, which is known as Title IX, schools that discriminate based on sex are not eligible for federal funding.
Trump threatened that the order is putting every school receiving taxpayer dollars on notice that 'if you let men take over women's sports teams or invade your locker rooms', they will be investigated and risk losing federal funding.
"There will be no federal funding. So this will effectively end the attack on female athletes," he added.
What was Caitlyn Jenner's response?
Now, Jenner - who publicly came out as a trans woman in April 2015, and announced her new name in July of that year - is famously a Trump supporter.
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Taking to X, the former Olympian shared a surprising statement, explicitly agreeing with Trump's latest decision.
"Another victory in the fight for protecting women’s sports!" Jenner wrote. "President Trump signs an Executive Order keeping biological men out of women’s sports!"
She continued: "As an Olympian, I will continue to fight this issue, lobbying sport governing body’s all over the world to follow our lead!"
What has Donald Trump previously said about trans rights?
Trump has previously declared that the US government would recognise 'only two genders'.
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The policy reads in part: "Agencies will cease pretending that men can be women and women can be men when enforcing laws that protect against sex discrimination. These sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality."
This means that transgender, non-binary, intersex, and two-spirit individuals would no longer be recognised.
The order also pledges to bring to an end 'wasteful' government programmes which promote diversity and inclusivity, as well as 'defending women from gender ideology extremism'.
The policy's introduction comes after Trump previously vowed to end any programmes that 'promote … gender transition at any age', and pledged to cut funding from hospitals providing gender-affirming care.
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However, the order, which is a total affront to trans and other LGBTQ+ rights and protections, also includes a section with definitions that simply do not align with very basic biology.
The order claims that 'female means a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the large reproductive cell' while 'male means a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the small reproductive cell'.
"It’s especially egregious that this order defines 'sex' as starting 'at conception,' which is impossible," said Ash Lazarus Orr, press relations manager at Advocates for Trans Equality.
"While it’s possible to know chromosomal information, human embryos don’t show sexual differentiation at that stage - and all embryos initially develop along 'female' lines until later in development."
So, by the definition mapped out in the executive order, all Americans are female.
Donald Trump's executive order on 'chemical and surgical mutilation'
And, just last week, Trump signed an executive order to protect children from 'chemical and surgical mutilation'.
The order, which is titled 'Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation', filed 28 January, states the US government will not 'fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called "transition" of a child from one sex to another'.
Section 1, titled 'Policy and Purpose', reads: "Across the country today, medical professionals are maiming and sterilising a growing number of impressionable children under the radical and false claim that adults can change a child’s sex through a series of irreversible medical interventions.
"This dangerous trend will be a stain on our Nation’s history, and it must end."
Defining a child as being an individual 'under 19 years of age', it continues: "Countless children soon regret that they have been mutilated and begin to grasp the horrifying tragedy that they will never be able to conceive children of their own or nurture their children through breastfeeding.
"Moreover, these vulnerable youths’ medical bills may rise throughout their lifetimes, as they are often trapped with lifelong medical complications, a losing war with their own bodies, and, tragically, sterilisation."
The order defines 'chemical and surgical mutilation' as the use of puberty blockers to 'delay the onset or progression of normally timed puberty in an individual who does not identify as his or her sex', hormone treatment 'such as androgen blockers, oestrogen, progesterone, or testosterone', and surgical procedures 'that attempt to transform an individual’s physical appearance to align with an identity that differs from his or her sex or that attempt to alter or remove an individual’s sexual organs to minimise or destroy their natural biological functions'.
Trump, who has five children with three different women, has also called for new credentialing for teachers to 'promote positive education about the nuclear family, the roles of mothers and fathers', as per The Guardian.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, contact the LGBT Foundation on 0345 3 30 30 30, 10am–6pm Monday to Friday, or email [email protected].
Topics: Donald Trump, Politics, News, US News, LGBTQ, LGBTQ+, Caitlyn Jenner, Celebrity, Sport
Rhiannon Ingle