When President Donald Trump said in his inaugural speech, “There are only two genders,” it made Massachusetts teen Liam Morrison very happy, hoping it would help him in his legal battle against his Middleborough school district as the Supreme Court considers whether to take his case.

In his inaugural speech, Trump railed against “government policy of trying to socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life.” And then added, “As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female.”

President Donald Trump signs executive orders in the Oval Office on Jan. 20, 2025. One of Trump’s executive orders required the federal government to recognize only two sexes: male and female. (JIM WATSON/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Trump also doubled down on his words by signing an executive order requiring the federal government to recognize only two sexes, male and female, and banning transgender service members.  

In a statement to Fox, the legal department of the LGBTQ+ advocacy group GLAAD said, “Every student has the right to attend public school without fear of bullying and harassment, and nothing in the executive order changes that. As the supreme court has recognized, public school officials have both the authority and obligation to provide a safe learning environment for all students, which is what the school did in this case.”

But Langhofer says this case is precedent-setting.

A gender-neutral bathroom at the University of California, Irvine (Reuters/Lucy Nicholson/File)

“It really comes down to the question of whether the government has the right to punish a seventh-grader for simply peacefully expressing a viewpoint that was different than what the school was expressing,” Langhofer said. “And we think that that law has been clearly established.”

Liam also sees the larger picture of his fight.

“I’m hoping … that this will be seen as not only just a one-court battle but also a sign for people to speak up about their own beliefs and also a recognition of that trying to say that a biological fact isn’t true is just absurd and people are willing to fight for it,” Liam said.

In a few weeks the U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether to take up Liam’s case. Langhofer said it’s not clear what effect, if any, Trump’s executive order will have, and that the case ultimately rests on the weight of the First Amendment.