Since the start of the Trump presidency, we have seen a growing demonization of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, otherwise known as DEI. The official rejection of DEI by the Trump administration has criminalized the acknowledgement of different genders, races, and sexualities. 

About 220,000 federal layoffs, inaccessible healthcare, lack of representation, discontinued programs, halted research and the cancellation of innumerable other initiatives have characterized Donald J. Trump’s second term so far. 

What is DEI? 

DEI was created for the purpose of ensuring equal opportunities for minority groups. According to CNN, DEI has existed since the civil rights movement, which accelerated efforts to make more diverse and inclusive workplaces. 

Not only does DEI advocate for racial inclusion, it also advocates for the inclusion of different genders, sexualities, and disabilities. 

DEI has ensured that all people get a fair chance at employment without persecution or discrimination. It also encourages the intentional inclusion of minorities in the workplace. 

Trump’s Anti-DEI Initiatives

One of the largest and most sweeping Executive Orders that has been issued so far, Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing, has directly led to harmful consequences. 

Contrary to common belief, there is no “preferencing” in DEI, as the Trump Administration seems to believe. The entire purpose of DEI is to prevent partiality toward non-marginalized groups. This simply ensures equal opportunity, not one group over the other. 

The proposal for this order states that the Biden Administration “forced illegal and immoral discrimination programs” through the use of DEI. Building on this claim, the order called DEI an “infiltration of the Federal Government.” 

This proposal is being used to facilitate the end of DEI efforts, stating that they “shall coordinate the termination of all discriminatory programs, including illegal DEI.” 

To carry out this proposal, the Executive Order dictates that the director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and the Attorney General shall “review and revise” all existing Federal employment practices, union contracts, and training programs or policies to measure their compliance with the order. 

They called for the termination, to the maximum extent allowed by the law, of environmental justice offices and positions, any position under the title of Chief Diversity Officer, equity-related programs, and grants and contracts. Additionally, any DEI requirements for the workplace were henceforth annulled. 

According to NPR, about 1,300 employees, or 30 percent of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) were laid off, and as many as 1,500 people were cut from the National Institute of Health (NIH). This will have harmful repercussions for these organizations, as they will not be able to carry on their work. 

The CDC helps to prevent the spread of disease. They played a large role in efforts to combat COVID-19 and continue to respond to disease threats all over the world. 

The NIH conducts invaluable medical research to continuously improve healthcare and expand on medical knowledge. 

Thousands more have been removed from Federal Government positions, some choosing Trump’s resignation offer, which promised pay and benefits through September. In doing this, Trump promised money that was never approved in the budget, because the budget is to be approved in March.

The removal of these DEI initiatives will kickstart a major employment crisis in America. 

The order Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity is another reaction to DEI.

The action states that the government and other influential institutions “actively use dangerous, demeaning, and immoral race and sex-based preferences.”

The purpose of the order is to reinstate merit-based chance, alleging that various public and private institutions have used discrimination to  “[prioritize] how people were born instead of what they [are] capable of doing.” 

The language in this order is extremely biased against DEI. There is no “priority” over how people were born, and institutions do not hire people that they don’t feel are fit for the position. DEI simply keeps them from making hiring decisions based on race, sexuality, gender, or accessibility. 

Merit does not account for all skill types, and different people have different strengths. Obviously the hiring process will take the ability of a person into consideration. Employers are not hiring people that will prove difficult for them, they want to intentionally hire people who are best fit for the job. Merit is not a full tell of qualification for any position. 

Another case of an Anti-DEI policy is the order Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government. 

The claims of the order are simply wrong, asserting that “ideologues who deny the biological reality of sex have increasingly used legal and other socially coercive means to permit men to self-identify as women,” and that they use that to “gain access to intimate single-sex spaces and activities designed for women.”

From this I ask where the real protection of women comes from. Where is the order to make the sentence for rape longer, where are the abortion rights to promote the health and general well-being of women, where is the real protection for women against dangerous men? 

It comes as no surprise that these protections are non-existent, seeing as a heavy amount of Trump’s cabinet, including Trump, have sexual misconduct allegations on their records. 

The order continues on to say that the road of “gender ideology” is paved by attacks on scientific and biological definitions, and that the former is “replacing long standing, cherished legal rights and values with an identity-based, inchoate social concept.”

It should also be noted that by allowing people their own gender representation, we are not attacking science, anatomy, or the definitions of sex. The ability of individuals to freely express themselves is simply a human right. 

Let it be known that Trump’s choice to use spray tan or Elon Musk’s hair transplant, which is a gender-affirming operation, are both examples of personal preference and self-expression. 

Nobody is changing their gender in spite of another person. Nobody is changing their gender to face the persecution, hate, and disagreement of others; they are changing their gender because they need to. Conservatives need to stop making the hardest decisions of a person’s life seem like an act of murder.

This brings me to the order Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports, which removes transgender women from participating in women’s sports. This is nonsense. According to the NCAA President in a Senate panel, there are fewer than ten transgender athletes in the NCAA. 

Additionally, the use of the word “men” to describe transgender women, is inherently disrespectful to transgender identity. 

Trump’s order explains that the participation of transgender women in women’s sports as “demeaning, unfair, and dangerous to women and girls,” and that it denies opportunity for females to compete in sports. 

This inclusion is not denying any women the ability to participate in women’s sports. The repetitive attack on trans people in sports is not to protect women, but to attack transgender people.

The real danger women face does not reside in transgender women participating in women’s sports; this danger is found in the workplace and social settings in every facet of a woman’s life, mainly at the hands of men. Nationwide, 81 percent of women reported experiencing some form of sexual harassment in their lifetime, and this number doesn’t account for the countless unreported abuses as well. 

Seeing as the only justification for removing transgender women from sports is to “protect” women, Trump has no real reason for this, considering that he hasn’t shown care for women in any other way. DEI initiatives have benefited women as well, and by rolling these back, Trump is putting women in a worse position than they originally were. 

Through the consistent persecution of DEI, egg prices have not decreased, healthcare has not improved and owning a house hasn’t gotten easier. What about the countless other issues still waiting to be addressed? 

If you are against abortion, don’t get one. If you are against transgender operations and healthcare, do not participate. If you are against women’s health, do not engage yourself. If you are against inclusion in the workplace, too bad. It is the simplest thing to exist as you are and let others do the same. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but we forget that opinions aren’t facts, and they should not determine governance over other humans. Don’t let DEI be made into something it isn’t.