How will Trump’s executive orders on gender impact Minnesotans? A lawyer explains

NINA MOINI: One of the many executive orders President Trump signed on his first day in office yesterday includes a declaration that the US government recognizes only two sexes, male and female. A series of orders he signed are targeted at transgender identities. These orders reverse efforts by the Biden administration to broaden gender identity designations, including on passports.

Now here to explain President Trump's orders and give us a picture for how they might impact Minnesotans is Jess Braverman. Jess is the legal director at Gender Justice in Saint Paul, and Jess, thank you for talking with me today.

JESS BRAVERMAN: Hey. Thank you so much for having me.

NINA MOINI: I just want to start by asking, what was your reaction to Trump's executive orders involving gender identity yesterday?

JESS BRAVERMAN: These executive orders weren't surprising, but I think we're really underestimating how harmful they are. It's upsetting enough that these orders target transgender people. That in itself should be cause for concern. But these orders are bad for all women.

And reviewing the orders, you see, here, defending women, protecting women, and also the idea that men and women are biologically different. These concepts, taken together, have historically been devastating for women's equality. If you think about all of the things women have been denied being able to do, based on these ideas-- for example, serving on juries, joining the military-- this executive order is bad for everyone.

NINA MOINI: What are you hearing from community members, and what are you telling them?

JESS BRAVERMAN: Community members, right now, are really afraid. The people we're hearing most from are transgender people. Those are the people that are directly attacked by this order and who are directly impacted by it. I know that, leading up to Trump's inauguration, transgender people were just trying as quickly as possible to update their identity documents and to make sure they have all of their papers in order, so Minnesota courts were seeing just a surge in name-change requests so that people could get their documents in order before Trump entered office. So I know people are really scared right now and are really confused about what their rights are.

NINA MOINI: There just seem to be a number of ways this executive order could impact people's lives at the very granular level. What are your top concerns?

JESS BRAVERMAN: My top concerns is that we're going to see a rollback of rights for all people. So a lot of the language in here-- it's not based on science. It's based a lot in religion, the idea of sex from the moment of conception. Well, what is conception? And so what we're going to see is a rollback of reproductive rights, a rollback of the rights of transgender people, a rollback of the rights of LGB people as well-- lesbian, gay, and bisexual.

If you look at the executive order, Trump is also rescinding some guidance on not just transgender youth in schools, for example, but on lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth as well. And so I'm looking at this with an eye towards-- we know this targets trans people. That in itself is bad enough. But what else does this do? This is just a very broad executive order that, like I said, is bad for everyone.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. I'm thinking about passports. Over the last few years, the federal government has given people the option to use an X marker, in place of a gender marker, to indicate unspecified gender, and Minnesota has allowed that marker on state IDs since 2018. So what should people who have that X marker on their IDs-- what are they thinking about right now?

JESS BRAVERMAN: I think people are really nervous right now. If you already have the X marker on your passport, but let's say it's not on your other identity documents, there's concern about, what if your various identity documents don't match up? For example, there are people who-- their state documents have an X. Their passport has an M or F. They haven't updated that yet, and now they can't get their documents to match.

So what does that do for you, in terms of-- you're trying to use your state ID to get services, to access benefits, to access things like that. What does it mean to have your documents not match up? And I think that's causing a lot of concern for people. So right now, I just want folks to know, in terms of state-based documents, like driver's licenses, that sort of thing, you can still get your name changed on state-based documents. You can still get your gender marker changed on state-based documents.

So the executive order is instructing federal agencies what to do, and a lot of name-change-related things are not at the federal level. So you can still, in Minnesota, go to court, get your name changed. There are ways to get your gender marker changed in Minnesota. That's still available for state-based documents.

NINA MOINI: That's really helpful to know. So the executive order states that federal agencies will enforce, quote, "laws governing sex-based rights, protections, opportunities, and accommodations to protect men and women as biologically distinct sexes." What does that mean for federal employees living in Minnesota?

JESS BRAVERMAN: So there's things the president can do by executive order and things that he can't. For one, the executive order can't trump anything that the Supreme Court has already ruled on, so employment discrimination protections, for example. Federal employment discrimination protections do protect transgender people. That's a Supreme Court ruling in Bostock from 2020. President Trump can't overrule the Supreme Court by executive order.

The question is, how far are federal agencies going to push it? How far are they going to push the rulings they've already received at the federal level, and what's going to happen when these issues come to a head in courts? And so we're going to see a lot of legal challenges here. I think it's too soon, right now, to know exactly how this will play out, but I would just urge folks, encourage folks to just understand where the Supreme Court has already ruled. You cannot undo that by executive order.

And so federal employment protections-- it should not change that, but we could see federal agencies disregarding Supreme Court rulings, and that will obviously have to be litigated.

NINA MOINI: Could this have any impact on gender-affirming care?

JESS BRAVERMAN: We are going to see, I'm sure, President Trump try to take action in the area of gender-affirming medical care. I do want to make sure people understand, right now, gender-affirming medical care is legal. It is available here in Minnesota, and you can continue to get that care. Some people have already lost insurance coverage for that care. That would be people who get it through the VA for their kids, for minors.

There was already a ruling from Congress, a law from Congress that rolls back insurance coverage in that area, and there are other ways to try to seek coverage if you qualify, let's say, for state-based medical assistance. You can seek that out here in Minnesota. But I know a lot of these executive orders are scary. They change. It's like the rug's constantly being pulled out from under you.

So I do want folks to know that, right now, gender-affirming care is legal in Minnesota. If you have private insurance, that insurance covers that care. If you're on state-based medical assistance, at least as of today, that's still covering that care. And so I just want folks to know, don't pre-emptively comply with-- if you think you've lost your rights, you comply with that. You still do have the right to access that care and to have it covered here in Minnesota.

NINA MOINI: How quickly could this executive order have legal effects on Minnesotans?

JESS BRAVERMAN: That's a great question, and it really depends. What the executive order does is it instructs federal agencies to take certain actions, and so a lot of those actions can't happen right away. For example, if a federal agency needs to make a new rule, they first have to rescind an old rule. There's a public comment period. And so a lot of these things can't necessarily take effect immediately. But there's so many different things in this order, it's hard to say exactly what day and what time different provisions will go into effect.

In terms of Minnesota law, the executive order doesn't impact Minnesota law. It doesn't change Minnesota law. The question is, really, will Minnesota have to change anything to be in compliance with federal law? And we have to see how that all shapes out in the coming days and weeks.

NINA MOINI: And just briefly, last question. Is there anything else that you want listeners to know as they're wrapping their minds around these orders and hearing conflicting information?

JESS BRAVERMAN: Yeah, I just really want listeners-- I want to validate. A lot of people are really scared right now. Like I said, it feels like the rug's being pulled out from under you all the time. And so I just want to validate that. A lot of people are nervous. They're scared. They don't know what their rights are, and we totally understand that.

I also just want folks to understand that, right now, you still have the rights that you had before Trump's inauguration, in a lot of senses. As I said, you can still access gender-affirming care in Minnesota. That is still legal here. And so you're going to hear a lot of scary headlines. You're going to see a lot of things in the news, but just understand that not everything you see means that you've immediately lost your rights as of that day.

But we just want folks to know there are people fighting for you all here in Minnesota and across the country. You're going to see a lot of lawsuits. You're going to see a lot of advocates pushing for protective legislation. So you can follow us at genderjustice.us or Gender Justice Action to see what's going on here in Minnesota, but just don't lose hope. Stay with us. Keep following what's going on, and just know people are fighting for your rights here.

NINA MOINI: Jess, thanks for talking with me today.

JESS BRAVERMAN: Thank you so much.

NINA MOINI: That was Jess Braverman, the legal director at Gender Justice in Saint Paul.