Navy stops asking personnel about gender identity, makes 'intimate spaces' either male or female
The U.S. Navy has joined other military branches in making changes and defining two sexes as a result of an executive order signed by President Donald Trump.
The U.S. Navy will no longer ask personnel about gender identity, only focusing on biological sex when it comes to forms and single-sex spaces on ships and bases, military news organization Stars and Stripes reported.
The outlet obtained a Navy memo dated Tuesday that states the U.S. recognizes two sexes, which "are not interchangable."
Single-sex "intimate spaces," as the memo refers to them, include bathrooms and single sailor's living quarters on bases and in ship berths, according to Stars and Stripes.
The changes are a result of an executive order President Donald Trump signed last month titled, "Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government."
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The guidance states that it "recognizes there are only two sexes: male and female," and that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) "will use these definitions and promote policies acknowledging that women are biologically female and men are biologically male." It goes on to specify that a male is a person "of the sex characterized by a reproductive system with the biological function of producing sperm" and a female is a "person of the sex characterized by a reproductive system with the biological function of producing eggs (ova)."
The Air Force and Army issued guidance for their plans to eliminate gender identity polices in compliance with Trump's orders earlier this month.
As of 2018, there was an estimated 14,700 U.S. military personnel who identified as transgender, according to an NPR report citing a study by the Palm Center. In 2021, a military survey from the Office of People Analytics showed that roughly 1.7% of service members either identified as transgender or had a gender identity that was different from their sex at birth.
The Navy did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment.
"This administration is bringing back common sense and restoring biological truth to the federal government," HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a statement. "The prior administration’s policy of trying to engineer gender ideology into every aspect of public life is over."
Trump's gender-related executive orders – which include banning biological men from women's sports and transgender people from the military – have sparked legal challenges, with several lawsuits filed by progressive and LGBT advocacy groups arguing that the orders violate civil rights protections for transgender individuals.
Fox News' Alexander Hall and Jamie Joseph contributed to this report.
