Trump Orders End to DEI and Gender Ideology in Public Education

Under one order, all prior U.S. Department of Education guidance documents relevant to gender ideology have been rescinded.
Trump Orders End to DEI and Gender Ideology in Public Education
President Donald Trump signs executive orders in the Oval Office of the WHite House on Jan. 20, 2025. Jim Watson/Pool/AFP via Getty Images
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President Donald Trump has issued several executive actions aimed at reforming public education in the United States, including one that targets transgender ideology, keeping a promise he made after winning the 2024 election.

“We will get critical race theory and transgender insanity the [expletive] out of our schools, and we’re going to get it out of our schools very fast,” he said during a Dec. 22, 2024, rally in Arizona.

Under an order Trump signed Monday, all prior U.S. Department of Education guidance documents relevant to gender ideology are rescinded, including a tip sheet on implementing Title IX regulations, a toolkit for creating “inclusive and nondiscriminatory schools environments for LGBTQI+ students,” guides for supporting transgender youth in schools, and a back-to-school message for transgender youth from the U.S. Departments of Justice, Education, and Health and Human Services.

Nicole Neily, president of Parents Defending Education, issued a statement in support of the executive order after it was signed.

“As PDE’s recent polling shows, opposition to progressives’ gender ideology spans both racial and political lines - and indeed, it was one of the issues that propelled President Trump to the White House,” the statement read.

“We ... look forward to the Department of Education putting in place policies and procedures that provide clarity to schools and families alike.”

Biden’s executive orders on “advancing educational equity, excellence, and economic opportunities” for Hispanics, Native Americans, and black Americans were rescinded by Trump, as was a separate executive action from the prior president that initiated the same advancements for “Hispanic-serving institutions.”

Trump also ordered the heads of all federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Education, to take immediate steps to end the federal implementation of “unlawful and radical DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) ideology.”