President-elect Donald Trump has lengthened his Day 1 agenda, adding to it a vow to “stop the transgender lunacy.”
In a speech to a conservative group, Mr. Trump said he would use the power of the pen at the start of his presidency to have the federal government recognize only biological sex.
“With a stroke of my pen on Day 1, we’re going to stop the transgender lunacy,” he proclaimed to cheers at AmericaFest in Phoenix.
“I will sign executive orders to end child mutilation, get transgender out of the military and out of our elementary schools and middle schools and high schools. And we will keep men out of women’s sports,” he said.
Some of those issues are more immediately subject to state and local regulators and to the rules of such nongovernmental bodies as the NCAA and other sports leagues, health-insurance companies, and medical guilds.
However, the federal government has considerable indirect power over even those institutions through its discrimination laws, licensing authorities and purse strings.
Mr. Trump then teased the audience by asking “should I do Day 1, Day 2 or Day 3?”
“How about Day 1?,” he “answered” his own question. “Under the Trump administration, it will be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders — male and female. It doesn’t sound too complicated. Does it?”
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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