Trump administration gives warning about ‘gender ideology’ on some government health websites

CNN —
Some of the public health websites that the US government was ordered to restore involving gender and gender identity now carry a warning denying the existence of transgender people.
The warnings use some of the same language as an Executive Order that President Donald Trump signed January 20 on “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.” The order states that it is the policy of the United States to “recognize two sexes, male and female” and instructs agencies to remove all statements that say otherwise.
On Tuesday, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to restore certain government public health webpages and datasets, which agencies like the US Food and Drug Administration and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had taken down, to their versions as of January 30. It’s not clear whether the warning now posted on the government sites would be considered a violation of the order.
The warning tells the public that the information they’re looking at had to be restored due to a court order but that “any information on this page promoting gender ideology is extremely inaccurate and disconnected from the immutable biological reality that there are two sexes, male and female.”
The warning, set off in a blue box, on an FDA page concerning the study of sex differences in the clinical evaluation of medical products goes on to say, “The Trump Administration rejects gender ideology and condemns the harms it causes to children, by promoting their chemical and surgical mutilation, and to women, by depriving them of their dignity, safety, well-being and opportunities. This page does not reflect biological reality and therefore the Administration and this Department reject it.”
The warning also appeared on a page headlined “Diversity Action Plans to Improve Enrollment of Participants from Underrepresented Populations in Clinical Studies,” on popular CDC databases called the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System and on a database called the Social Vulnerability Index.
Although the administration says there are only two sexes, most scientists say it’s more complicated.
Research shows that there is a difference between “sex” and “gender,” and for decades, public health websites have reflected that nuance.
Sex refers to biological differences including chromosomes, reproductive organs and hormones, according to the American Medical Association definition. Typically, a clinician will assign a person “male” or “female” at birth, usually based on anatomy. There are also intersex people, whose sexual and reproductive anatomy doesn’t fit the male/female binary. Intersex people are not acknowledged by the president’s instructions.
Gender refers to a person’s sense of being a man, woman, another gender or no gender at all. A person’s gender may or may not correspond with the sex they were assigned at birth.
Government health websites have also long included information for transgender individuals, but the Trump administration has removed references to people who identify as transgender in multiple government websites, including the page about the Stonewall Uprising national monument. The monument marks the site of the New York City inn where LGBTQ rioters – including several well-known transgender activists – became catalysts for the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement.
Judge John Bates’ temporary restraining order came after Doctors for America sued the government, saying irreparable harm was caused by the loss of dozens of public health websites that the doctors used regularly to treat patients and conduct research.
The websites that were removed were those that mentioned what a memo from the Office of Personnel Management called “gender ideology.” The memo ordered the removal of such language by January 31.
Removed were several CDC pages related to HIV, treatment guidelines for sexually transmitted infections, and LGBTQ youth, including sites about LGBT children’s risk of suicide and a page on health disparities among LGBTQ youth. Even a page about “Safer Food Choices for Pregnant People” was taken down.
Not all pages that relate to transgender individuals carry the new warning; some have been reworked to remove gendered terms.
The CDC’s food page for pregnancy is now called “Safer Food Choices for Pregnant Women.” The transgender youth mention on the CDC’s health disparities in suicide page has disappeared. A page on LGBTQ+ people and smoking still contains the “T” in its headline, but a fact about how cigarette smoking is higher among transgender adults has been removed.
Yet other pages have not been restored.
The Office of Personnel Management told CNN that it had issued no further instructions to agencies about the websites. Instead, the office said in an email that it believed the issue was being handled “at the agency level.” The US Department of Health and Human Services, the White House, the CDC and the FDA did not respond to CNN’s requests for comment Friday.