Fact Checking the Federal Government on “Gender Ideology”
July 13, 2026
Woodhull Freedom Foundation Response to this Proposed Rule.
Woodhull Freedom Foundation is a national organization dedicated to defending and protecting sexual freedom as a fundamental human right. Woodhull protects individuals’ rights across the United States to enjoy sexual dignity, privacy, and consensual sexual expression without societal or governmental interference, coercion, or stigmatization. In carrying out this work, we defend the rights, health, and safety of Transgender, Nonbinary, and Gender Expansive individuals. It is in this capacity that we submit this comment to oppose the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) proposed rule to revise the Guidance for Federal Financial Assistance within 40 federal government institutions, published in the Federal Register on May 29, 2026. This proposed rule would, in part, enforce the White House’s Executive Order 14168 “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government” through Federal award making across the Federal Government.
In the proposed rule, OMB claims it is necessary to “improve transparency, accountability, and oversight for Federal awards across the Federal Government.” In carrying this out, OMB proposes to enforce Executive Order 14168 by “ending government sponsorship of gender ideology and other radical doctrines the previous administration sought to impose across the country through Federal funding programs.” We are deeply disturbed by the methods proposed to implement Executive Order 14168 and the justification from OMB that the rule would “aim to ensure that basic American principles of equality and equal opportunity are upheld throughout all stages of the award making process and that unlawful discrimination is no longer permitted.”
Far from ensuring equality and equal opportunity, the enforcement of Executive Order 14168 within OMB’s proposed changes to Federal government grantmaking represents a grave threat to protecting and advancing gender equality. Executive Order 14168 attempts to make it the United States policy to recognize only two sexes, male and female. This proposed rule reinforces this effort by requiring that Federal awards not be used to fund, promote, encourage, subsidize, or facilitate “gender ideology” as defined in the EO, including, “ideologies that deny the biological reality of sex or the sex binary in humans, or endorse or advocate for the notion that sex is a chosen or mutable characteristic.” The recognition of only two sexes is not only scientifically inaccurate but extremely harmful to the mental and physical well-being of gender diverse individuals. We include here a brief excerpt from our Fact Checked by Woodhull series, which addresses the reality of sex and gender:
“Sex and gender are complex and exist on a spectrum, yet society often creates narrow, rigid categories that fail to reflect this diversity. These restrictive categories can cause harm by excluding and shaming anyone who exists outside of these lines, especially transgender and intersex people. Being forced into categories that do not align with identity can cause discrimination and violence in families, healthcare, and social systems. This can have serious long-term emotional and physical consequences for individuals who are outside of these lines. For example, transgender youth reported significantly increased rates of depression, suicidality, and victimization compared to their cisgender peers. These are often accompanied by struggling with belonging in school, family issues, and internalized self-stigma.”
It is imperative that OMB and all federal government policies accurately represent the complexities of sex and gender. We include in this comment PDFs of Woodhull publications, which provide accurate language that should be used in public policy related to gender and sex:
This proposed rule from OMB threatens human rights and civil protections for millions of people throughout the United States and furthers the cruel attacks against transgender, non-binary, and gender expansive individuals. We also raise alarm at the fact that this is all part of a nationwide assault on trans people that is so dire that the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention and Human Security has warned that policies targeting transgender people in the United States are indicative of the early stages of genocide.
We call on OMB to recognize the proposed rule’s inherent harms to equality along with civil and human rights and reject its implementation.