Getting Off the Biden-era Metric: Responding to Trump’s Executive Order on Transgender Identity for Meta and Feeld

The order was seen as an attempt by Trump to roll back the rights of some people, and also instructed federal agencies to require government- issued identification documents, including passports, visas, and Global Entry cards, accurately reflect the holder. It was one of 78 orders signed that were part of a plan to end Biden-era policies that tried to promote race and gender into every aspect of life.

The executive order contains provisions that require further federal action to become law, and this document should be viewed as a roadmap the Trump administration has drafted to signal what new rules they are planning on implementing. The trans community is feared by experts and that’s why an order published this week with Trump’s comments.

Following Trump’s executive order, Match Group and Feeld both told WIRED they have no intention of reversing course when it comes to the gender identity options offered on their respective platforms.

It remains to be seen how other tech companies will respond to the executive order. Meta, for example, appeared to be making overtures to the Trump administration before this week. The company would end its third party fact-checking program and transition to a Community Notes model, as announced by CEO Mark Zuckerberg earlier this month.

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerman peddled a sudden reversal as a way to increase free speech on the platform, and allow for more political content. “We’re going to simplify our content policies and get rid of a bunch of restrictions on topics like immigration and gender that are just out of touch with mainstream discourse,” Zuckerberg said in a video accompanying the announcement.

How a Nonbinary Child Walked into a White House, Worried about Donald Trump and the Future of LGBT+ Rights: Calling the Hotline at the Rainbow Youth Project

Over a decade ago, OkCupid made it easier for users to find gender options that match their identifications. It was among the first dating apps to capture an accurate picture of identity online, and the different ways it was evolving. In addition to the above, Tinder provides an option for users to specify their preferred pronoun on their profiles.

Just before the presidential election last November, Carolyn Fisher was in her living room in Birmingham, Alabama, when her nonbinary child walked in and said that he, along with four other transgender kids, were planning on dying by suicide if Donald Trump won the upcoming election.

Fisher and her husband were both big fans of Trump. Holding a spiral notebook, Carolyn’s 16-year-old, who uses the pronouns he and they, made a case against voting for Trump.

“He laid out why a vote for Donald Trump was voting against him as our child and why Donald Trump should never be president. He kept notes of everything Trump and other Republicans had said about trans and nonbinary people and how delusional they were. When he laid all of that out, my husband and I, we both just looked at each other and started crying.”

The bishop at the National Cathedral service asked the president to protect gay, lesbian, and transgender children, but he rejected her pleas and called her “nasty in tone and not compelling or smart.”

“I think there’s a huge amount of it that is just about fear, and a part of it is trying to scare people into compliance” Allison Chapman, a trans rights activist, tells WIRED. We really need people to not comply in advance since enforcement takes a lot of time, energy, and resources. There needs to be an active resistance to these things.”

The Rainbow Youth Project, an organization focused on helping young LGBTQ+ people, received over 6,000 calls in just the first couple of days after Trump’s November election win. The usual number of calls is 3,600. It didn’t stop: The hotline received over 8,000 calls in December.