By Lisa Selin Davis, UnHerd.
Donald J. Trump promised to “stop the transgender lunacy” on day one of his second term as President. With his first executive order, reestablishing male and female as the only sexes — something we shouldn’t have needed were it not for policies replacing sex with gender identity — he kept that promise. A slew of other orders followed as the President set about reversing Biden- and Obama-era gender policies in education, mental health, and medicine.
Naturally, 2026 has begun with continued pushback. As of today, gender reassignment surgery is no longer available on federal health insurance programmes. As a result, federal employees have filed a lawsuit against the ban claiming that it amounts to sex-based discrimination.
Admittedly, some changes in the past year have been overreach, such as banning transgender people from serving openly in the military. Others should have garnered bipartisan support but didn’t, thanks to our polarised society. Regardless, these policies made big waves, including prompting major hospitals to shut down their paediatric gender clinics.