EXCLUSIVE: Rubio Cracks Down on Men in Women’s Restrooms
Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell /
FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—The State Department is enforcing President Donald Trump’s policy banning men from using women’s restrooms and other private spaces, according to a new memo obtained by The Daily Signal.
The State Department issued a memo on Monday titled “Updates Regarding Biological Sex and Intimate Spaces, Including Restrooms,” which clarifies that the agency must abide by Trump’s executive order protecting sex-segregated private spaces.
“The administration affirms that there are two sexes—male and female—and that federal facilities should operate on this objective and longstanding basis to ensure consistency, privacy, and safety in shared spaces,” State Department principal deputy spokesman Tommy Pigott told The Daily Signal.
“In line with President Trump’s executive order, this provides clear, uniform guidance to the department by grounding policy in biological sex as determined at birth.”
“ACTION: Post must abide by the President’s directive in E.O. 14168, ensuring intimate spaces are designated by biological sex,” the memo reads.
Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office directing agencies to designate private spaces by biological sex. Last summer, the Office of Personnel Management issued guidance that federal bathrooms, locker rooms, and lactation rooms must be designated by biological sex.
On Feb. 26, 2026, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruled that “under Title VII, federal agency employers may lawfully exclude men from the women’s bathroom, and women from the men’s bathroom.”
The ruling reverses an Obama-era EEOC decision from 2015, which required federal agencies to allow employees who identify as transgender to use bathrooms in accordance with their “gender identity,” rather than biological sex.
“When it comes to bathrooms, male and female employees are not similarly situated,” EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas said at the time. “Biology is not bigotry.”
The new memo does not prohibit single-occupancy restrooms.