“These sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality,” the order states.
Momentum continues to build in support of that order with recent actions at both the state and federal level.
The Republican-led chambers of the Kansas legislature this week voted to override a veto by Democrat Governor Laura Kelly to the state’s “Help Not Harm Act,” which restricts gender-manipulation treatments and surgeries for minors.
In Texas, Trump’s Department of Education has opened an investigation into a complaint from parents over the bathroom policy in the Arlington Independent School District.
Also in Texas, U.S. District Court Judge Reed O’Connor officially struck down the Biden administration’s Title IX expansion, which extended the landmark women’s rights legislation to include gender ideology.
The Department of Education on Jan. 31 sent a letter to K-12 schools and institutions of higher learning across the country stating that it would enforce the 2020 Title IX rule from Trump’s first administration, not the gender-driven Biden administration rewrite.
The full impact of Trump’s EO remains to be seen. A district court judge in Maryland last week issued a temporary restraining order against the EO, but Alliance Defending Freedom president and CEO Kristen Waggoner told Fox News she believes it will have far-reaching effects in education.
Meg Kilgannon, the Family Research Council’s senior fellow for Education Studies, said on Washington Watch Wednesday that rulings such as O’Connor’s will remain an obstacle for future administrations that might seek a return to gender confusion.
Kansas becomes the 27th state to pass a law that protects minors from the irreversible effects of gender-manipulation procedures.
“It’s amazing that we still have to pass these laws,” Kilgannon told show host Tony Perkins. “It’s sad to think that a governor would veto legislation that protects children, protects families, from surgeries that cause permanent changes in the body.”
Similar legislative veto override action has previously occurred in Arkansas and Ohio.
Common sense gaining strength
Momentum in support of only two genders is building as people begin to understand some of the radical gender efforts taking place nationwide, Kilgannon said.
“Before when we talked about this issue with people, they would say, ‘Oh, no, that's not true. That's not possible. People are not really. No one would give a sex change operation to a minor. That's ridiculous.’ We seemed like the crazy people.
“But in fact, people have come to understand that this is a real agenda. There are doctors who consider it medically appropriate to do these procedures on children,” Kilgannon said.
The Kansas House voted 84-35 to override the veto by Gov. Kelly (pictured at right). The Senate voted 31-9.
The bill adds violations of the act to the definition of unprofessional conduct for physicians and prohibits liability insurance from coverage damages for those who provide gender manipulation treatment for minors.
The law takes effect Thursday.
“We didn't just get here overnight, but it is certainly nice when we see that we are making gains in rolling back some of the sexual revolution agenda and at least giving parents the control over their children and this ability to veto these procedures for their kids,” Kilgannon said.
A real-life example in Texas
In Arlington, Texas, ABC7 News reports Richard Cox, a 58-year-old biological male with a history of exposing himself to children in public places, faces new charges after exposing himself to women and girls inside a high school girls’ locker room.
Witnesses began seeing Cox in the girls’ locker room in June of 2024. Concerns were raised in early September of last year, but Cox was not charged until late October, ABC7 reports.
The district’s response has been to strengthen security protocols for signing into facilities and requiring a 100% ID check against the sex offender database, Superintendent Francisco Duran said. He did not mention a change to the policy of allowing biological males to enter female spaces.
Cox “is identifying as transgender so that he can be naked in front of children, which is the crime that he went to jail for as a sex offender,” Kilgannon said.
Kilgannon said Cox has been around the area “for years” but that the county prosecutor refuses to prosecute him even at the encouragement of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
“It’s all based on this idea that someone can be born in the wrong body or identify as the opposite sex, which we know is just simply not true,” Kilgannon said.
Federal mandatory minimum sentencing varies depending on the crime, but Cox could face between 10 and 30 years in prison.
Local, state police drop the ball
“This is exactly the kind of thing that we’ve warned about as we’ve talked about this issue over the years,” Kilgannon said.
She praised Trump’s DOE for taking up the case but said “we shouldn’t have to rely on federal civil rights protections when there are clearly criminal charges that could be made against this person in Arlington, Texas.
“If the police would come when women call and say ‘there's a man in the locker room who's naked with my children,’ you would think that that would get a police call and a police response. But not in Arlington, apparently.”
