# Trump’s Taking Down Sites About Gender Identity All Over the Internet Source: https://www.404media.co/trumps-administration-is-taking-down-sites-about-gender-identity-all-over-the-internet Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/Trumps-Taking-Down-Sites-About-Gender-Identity-All-Over-the-Internet?index=0x6792c571283a1dc46406a5ed12238aa69ebc7ac7db99017464966483dccf37d1c7b9863f Submitted by misha on 2025-01-23 UTC, 2 upvotes, 3 comments ## Summary After Donald Trump signed an executive order declaring there are only two sexes, the Social Security Administration and other government departments removed information about changing one's sex from their websites. Ari Drennen spotted the change to the "change sex identification" page, which now displays "you are not authorized to access this page." The article also reports that gender identity information was removed from the administration's LGBTQIA+ site, and that several other government sites about gender identity and discrimination are offline or scrubbed. ## Article On day one of his presidency, one of Donald Trump’s first acts in office was to sign an executive order declaring that there are only two sexes: male and female. The order is a transphobic, scientifically incorrect screed titled “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism And Restoring Biological Truth To The Federal Government” that mischaracterizes sex and gender and demands that “every agency and all Federal employees acting in an official capacity on behalf of their agency shall use the term ‘sex’ and not ‘gender’ in all applicable Federal policies and documents.” The Social Security Administration and other government departments are complying with the order by scrubbing information about changing one’s sex from its website. 💡 Are you a federal employee or contractor with knowledge of the changes described in this piece, or how employees are reacting to these changes? I would love to hear from you. Using a non-work device, you can message me securely on Signal at sam.404. Otherwise, send me an email at sam@404media.co. Ari Drennen spotted the change to the “change sex identification” site and posted a screenshot on X: And just like that, the “how to change sex identification” page has vanished from the Social Security Administration website. pic.twitter.com/cNj7XeeuVH — Ari Drennen (@AriDrennen) January 23, 2025 The site now says “you are not authorized to access this page,” blocking it from public view. It used to show basic information about how to change your sex on record with the Social Security Administration by requesting a new Social Security card, and a link to a questionnaire that helped determine how to go about it. “You don't need to provide medical or legal evidence of your sex designation,” the site said when it was online. “Currently, you can change your sex identification to either male or female, but we are examining ways to provide an unspecified sex identification option in the future.” The "change sex identification" page, on January 21 compared to today. Information about gender identity and access to guides on changing one’s sex have also been scrubbed from the administration’s main LGBTQIA+ site. Here’s what looks like today, compared to how it looked last week. How the page looks today / How the SSA LGBTQI+ page looked on December 22, via the Internet Archive The Gender Identity link that’s now missing from that site and inaccessible to the public—showing a 404 error and not a CMS login message, unlike the “change sex identification” site—used to provide links to forms one would need to fill out to start the process. Form SS-5: Application for A Social Security Card is still available for download on the Internet Archive. A page about how to get a social security card is still online, as is a page for locating a Social Security office. Several other government websites about gender identity and discrimination are also offline, including a Department of Labor site about discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and a State Department site about how to select your gender marker on your passport, are also gone or scrubbed of mentions of gender identity. Aside from being unscientific nonsense and anti-abortion rhetoric, the “Defending Women from Gender Ideology” executive order has triggered all of this essential information to go offline across the internet, adding to the confusion and panic that many queer and trans people—and anyone who actually cares about reproductive rights or freedom of speech—already face going into Trump’s presidency. And it’s not the first time Trump’s administration took down a bunch of government websites to try to suppress scientific information: thousands of pages with climate change information were removed or buried during his first term. About the author Sam Cole is writing from the far reaches of the internet, about sexuality, the adult industry, online culture, and AI. She's the author of How Sex Changed the Internet and the Internet Changed Sex. ## Comments **misha**: You can follow the scrub on GitHub! https://www.404media.co/github-is-showing-the-trump-administration-scrubbing-government-web-pages-in-real-time/ **tim**: People always say that we have to protect democracy and shit, but if you look at it, individual negotiation that factors in your self-fulfillment ideas only truly happens in capitalism. I‘m pretty sure that you can still feel excellent in the USA and you may even still be called by your pronouns if you‘ve put yourself in the right economic situation, whereas the democratic system is currently failing you because the majority is just overruling you with the powerful man signing orders. And an order is fundamentally not negotiateable, it‘s a top down command. **misha**: happy trias politica ! democracy and individual rights are in fact not opposing forces, modern democratic systems are specifically designed with checks and balances to protect both majority rule and individual rights. Executive orders are limited by constitutional boundaries and can be challenged in court and be overridden by legislative action. The one about birthright has already been blocked actually https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2025/01/23/judge-blocks-trumps-birthright-citizenship-restrictions-in-court-for-now-blatantly-unconstitutional/ Also luckily individual rights are not solely protected by economic status. Fundamental rights are protected by law, not economic status, the rule of law applies equally regardless of economic position, constitutional guarantees exist independent of market forces. But let’s see how crazy it gets in the operetta Trump is staging.