The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Wednesday rolled out sweeping new policies that effectively erase the federal recognition of transgender, nonbinary, and intersex people, implementing a series of executive orders signed by President Donald Trump in recent weeks.
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With the launch of a new webpage under the Office on Women’s Health, the department is now promoting a rigid definition of sex that excludes transgender identities, falsely framing gender-affirming care as “chemical and surgical mutilation” and targeting trans inclusion in sports. The new policies align with Trump’s broader rollback of LGBTQ+ rights, part of his administration’s aggressive campaign against what it calls “gender ideology.”
Related: Trump will ban trans women from women’s prisons by removing trans inmates from rape protections
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., sworn in less than a week ago, declared that the department is “bringing back common sense and restoring biological truth to the federal government.”
In a press release, he added that, “The prior administration’s policy of trying to engineer gender ideology into every aspect of public life is over.”
But the move has sparked outrage from LGBTQ+ advocates, medical professionals, and lawmakers, who say the administration is weaponizing government agencies to push an unscientific and deeply harmful agenda. It also comes amid a string of legal setbacks for Trump’s anti-trans policies.
HHS website and video double down on anti-trans rhetoric
A new HHS webpage, titled “Protecting Women and Children,” enshrines Trump’s narrow definition of sex, erasing the existence of transgender, nonbinary, and intersex people from federal policy. It claims that federal agencies must now recognize only two sexes—male and female—and asserts that gender-affirming care is a form of child abuse. It's not.
Related: What is gender-affirming care, who uses it, and do they regret it?
Related: What can trans people do about Trump’s executive orders? Be plaintiffs, says Lambda Legal
The site also includes a section titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” echoing far-right rhetoric used to justify bans on transgender women athletes.
Alongside the website, HHS released a video featuring Riley Gaines, a former NCAA swimmer and right-wing activist, who praised Trump’s executive order barring transgender women from competing in women’s sports.
“The executive order keeping men out of women’s sports ensures the next generation of girls has the fair opportunity to compete with the safety, privacy, and equal opportunity they’re entitled to,” Gaines said in the video.
Gaines, now a vice chair of the America First Policy Institute’s Athletes for America, has built her platform on opposing trans inclusion in sports. She claimed that when she tied with transgender swimmer Lia Thomas at the 2022 NCAA championships, she was sidelined in favor of Thomas. “As women, we have been neglected and ignored while demanding we are entitled to equal opportunity to privacy and safety,” Gaines said.
HHS defends policy shift as “biological truth”
As part of its new policy framework, HHS has formally defined language that aligns with the administration’s approach to gender and sex. According to the new guidance, “sex” is defined as a “person’s immutable biological classification as either male or female.”
The department dictates that according to the government, a “female” is a person of the sex characterized by a reproductive system with the biological function of producing eggs (ova),” while a “male” is a “person of the sex characterized by a reproductive system with the biological function of producing sperm.” HHS officials defended the new policies as necessary for sex-specific medical treatment but didn’t address the erasure of trans identities.
Related: Trump signs executive order targeting transgender students, their teachers, and their schools
“In health care, sex distinctions can influence disease presentation, diagnosis, and treatment differently in females and males,” Deputy Assistant Secretary for Women’s Health Dorothy Fink said in a statement. “HHS recognizes that biological differences between females and males require sex-specific practices in medicine and research to ensure optimal health outcomes.” Fink is a medical doctor.
Every major medical association, including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, considers gender-affirming care medically sound, necessary, and proven treatment for the very real condition of gender dysphoria, a condition when a person's gender identity and their physical gender presentation are not aligned.
Critics of the HHS policies argue that the administration is using selective science to justify its attack on transgender people. Medical experts and major health organizations have long recognized that gender identity plays a critical role in patient care and that policies eliminating trans-inclusive health practices put lives at risk.
Rep. Mark Takano: “Trump-Vance admin taking a wrecking ball” to LGBTQ+ protections
Gay Democratic California U.S. Rep. Mark Takano, chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, issued a sharp rebuke of the administration’s actions, accusing Trump and his allies of prioritizing attacks on transgender people over pressing public health concerns.
“The Trump-Vance Administration is taking a wrecking ball to systems designed to protect LGBTQI+ people with no regard to the damage they’re doing to public health,” Takano said in a statement to The Advocate.
Related: Federal judge roasts Trump DOJ attorney over ‘frankly ridiculous’ claims in transgender military ban case
He condemned the Department of Health and Human Services for focusing its efforts on rolling back transgender rights instead of addressing real health crises.
“This trans hate campaign by Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services is more than a threat to the wellbeing of transgender people—it’s a threat to the health of every American,” Takano said. “While diseases like bird flu tear through American farms, jacking up prices for consumers, the Department of Health and Human Services is spending critical time and resources to fearmonger about transgender people and their healthcare.”
Takano argued that Trump’s priorities make clear where his administration stands.
“When given the choice between using the power of the federal government to solve real problems facing Americans or to attack trans people, Donald Trump will always choose to attack—because that’s all he and his administration care about.”
HHS puts disclaimer on websites, attacking “gender ideology”
As part of its hardline stance, HHS has placed a new disclaimer on some of its web pages that mention trans people, stating that “gender ideology is extremely inaccurate” and claiming that the Trump administration “rejects gender ideology.”
The disclaimer further asserts that gender-affirming care amounts to “chemical and surgical mutilation,” mirroring talking points frequently pushed by anti-LGBTQ+ extremists.
The shift marks a dramatic reversal from the Biden administration, which had explicitly recognized transgender people and affirmed the medical necessity of gender-affirming care.
The Advocate reached out to HHS to ask how the agency justifies this 180-degree reversal and how Americans can trust that the health information provided by the department is based in science rather than politics. HHS did not respond.
Former HHS official calls new policies “vile” and “unscientific”
Former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health Policy in the Biden administration Adrian Shanker, who now leads Shanker Strategies LLC, a consulting firm focused on advancing LGBTQI+ health and nonprofit development, slammed the department’s actions in an interview with The Advocate.
Related: Here are all of Trump’s executive orders that have targeted transgender people — so far
“Trans Americans, like all Americans, deserve the highest levels of their health,” Shanker said. “Instead, the Trump administration and Secretary Kennedy are starting their tenure at HHS by attacking trans people, harming their access to health, and promoting unscientific rhetoric about sex as a so-called immutable characteristic.”
Shanker called the policies “a vile new campaign” that “denies the humanity of trans and nonbinary Americans” and ignores the existence of intersex people.
“The science is clear: gender identity exists on a spectrum. Sex is not immutable,” he said. “We know this, and we will keep fighting for access to care for everyone.”
Legal challenges mount against Trump’s anti-transgender orders
The policy rollout comes as Trump’s attempts to strip transgender people of health care access are facing legal challenges.
Last Thursday, a federal judge in Maryland blocked a key part of Trump’s executive order banning gender-affirming care for minors, ruling that it is likely unconstitutional. The ruling halted enforcement nationwide, preventing the administration from withholding federal funds from hospitals and providers that offer care to trans youth.
Then, on Sunday, a federal judge in Washington state issued a second ruling against Trump’s anti-trans policies, blocking a provision of his executive order that would have cut off funding to hospitals providing gender-affirming care. The judge found that Trump’s order violated the Fifth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.
