From the moment Donald Trump entered office last year, he dismantled in weeks the gender identity-based laws and policies that Democrats had taken years to institute. With the stroke of his pen, he nixed the teaching of gender identity in publicly funded schools; restored Title IX to protect sex, not gender identity; and banned trans people from the military, among other executive orders.

Some Republicans, however, are worried that their party hasn’t gone far enough, and are baffled that Congress hasn’t matched the executive branch’s verve. Politico reports that hardline Republicans such as Missouri Senator Josh Hawley are frustrated that more bills haven’t made their way through Congress and been enshrined into law, thereby future-proofing them for whoever replaces Trump.

While the House did pass a bill to stop Medicaid from covering sex trait-altering procedures, it’s still yet to pass through the Senate. Hawley hasn’t been able to convince Congress to include the defunding of Planned Parenthood — one of the largest purveyors of cross-sex hormones in the US — in a recent immigration bill. Meanwhile, South Carolina Republican Nancy Mace proposed requiring federally funded entities to provide sex-based — rather than gender identity-based — bathrooms, but House Speaker Mike Johnson has not brought the measure to a vote. Some measures labeled “anti-trans” were removed from Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill”.

If Trump’s anti-trans ads proved so effective in 2024, and the issue remains a political winner for the GOP and a vulnerability for Democrats, why have Republicans been slow to pursue more permanent legislation?

At the state level, plenty of red states have passed laws forbidding the prioritizing of gender identity over sex — or, as the Trans Legislation Tracker puts it, states have passed 55 anti-trans laws. But at the federal level, the Senate generally doesn’t have the supermajority of 60 votes needed to push these measures through against Democratic filibustering. It’s not that Republicans don’t support those bills, but because not enough Democrats have jumped ship to join them. No matter how much bipartisan support there is among the electorate for restricting sports by sex rather than gender identity, Democrats in Congress have spiked laws that would make that a reality every time.

The problem, then, is less Republicans’ unwillingness to codify sex-based policies in law than Democrats’ refusal to offer support — even though eight Dems did jump ship to support a bill requiring parental notification of social transition. Some of their resistance is because of the polarized environment and the steep cost of supporting anything bearing Trump’s imprimatur.

But another reason may be that gender does not have the same political salience as it did in 2024. What really activates voters these days is the high cost of living and gas prices. While gender riles up the base, it’s not what matters to most people. Americans want their politicians to honestly answer questions such as “What is a woman?” but they may not want them spending much time legislating around the answer.

But for now, they still will. Tomorrow, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions will hold a hearing titled “Protecting Our Children: Exposing the Dangers of Irreversible Gender Transition Procedures on Minors”, where detransitioner Chloe Cole and trans lawyer Shannon Minter will both testify. Maybe the hearing will spur members of Congress to act before the midterms, and bring more bills to the floor.

Even if some Republican measures have veered into outright cruelty, that does not negate the case for restoring sex-based policy or, while it remains politically possible, for deinstitutionalizing gender identity.

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Lisa Selin Davis is the author of Tomboy. She writes at Broadview on Substack.

LisaSelinDavis

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