President Trump signed a sweeping executive order Monday during his first hours in office recognizing only two sexes, male and female, and directing federal agencies to cease promotion of the concept of gender transition.

The order, which Trump signed from the Oval Office, is part of a broader campaign promise to rid the nation of what he has called “transgender insanity” and reverse diversity and inclusion initiatives instituted by the Biden administration.

“As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders: male and female,” Trump said Monday in his inaugural address.

The executive order, which pledges to defend women from “gender ideology” and restore “biological truth to the federal government,” defines male and female not by physical or chromosomal differences but by reproductive function, which an administration official said was done intentionally.

“Chromosomes are characteristic of your sex, but the binary nature of sex, the reason you and I are all here, is deeper than that. It is the large reproductive cell, the small reproductive cell, working together in a binary function in order to perpetuate the species,” the official said.

Federal agencies should use the term “sex” instead of “gender” and remove statements, policies, and communications that “promote gender ideology,” according to the order. Agencies should give effect to the order’s definitions when applying their statutes, regulations and guidance.

The order also sets out to prevent transgender and gender non-conforming Americans from self-selecting their gender on official government documents like visas and passports, an option first made available by the State Department in 2021. The department in 2022 issued the first U.S. passport with an “unspecified” gender marker, denoted by a single letter X.

A Senate bill introduced by Vice President Vance in 2023, his first year in elected office, sought to prevent government documents from........

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