ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WFTS) — On his first day back on the job, President Donald Trump is making his intentions clear.
"It will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there will only be two genders: male and female," he said shortly after his inauguration.
An executive order signed on day one requires the country to only acknowledge sex, not gender.
That means if a trans man is sent to prison, he will be locked up in a women's facility. It also includes shelters, pronoun usage, and governmental documents.
Sex refers to a person's biological characteristics: either male or female. Gender is the social and cultural construct surrounding feeling like a man, woman, or somewhere in between. Under that order, all that counts is your reproductive organs.
Sydney Duncan, Senior Counsel at Advocates for Trans Equality, sees this executive order as a non-issue.
"It is a bit surprising given the urgency of a lot of the issues that Americans are facing these days, that the new administration chooses this as being one of the the front leading issues to to tackle. Especially given that it's pretty much a fake issue," she said.
She sees this executive order as just the beginning.
"We are afraid and concerned that the new administration is gonna continue to sort of underline this narrative, that these sorts of provisions of health care need to be disrupted and inevitably, especially at state levels," she said.
And while the president has not introduced any changes to healthcare for trans patients, it's top of mind for them and providers like Dr. Bob Wallace.
"This comes up daily in talking to our patients," Dr. Wallace said. "I've already seen some reports of people saying, 'I'm being told I'm not real because I'm transgender', and we just don't want that to happen. We have to do something to stand up."
Wallace owns Love the Golden Rule, Inc., a non-profit medical office focused on treating others how you would want to be treated.
Right now, that means being there for trans patients.
"Many people were predicting that there would be an issue related to the existence of transgender people, we as providers are concerned about transgender care. Our goal is to continue to message everyone and let them know that we are here. We're not going to back down. We're going to continue to provide care, because there's no reason we can't," said.
You can read the full executive order here.
"Why are you not giving us our money back? You owe it to us — just pay us.”
After waiting over eight months for a refund from a medical clinic, an ABC Action News viewer reached out to consumer investigative reporter Susan El-Khoury for help.
