Donald Trump has made his stance clear by announcing that there are ‘only two genders’ as he took office once more, though the specifics of his executive order may cause unforeseen issues.
On his first day back in the Oval Office for a second term, Trump signed an executive order aimed at ‘defending women from gender ideology extremism and reinstating biological reality within the federal government’.
This order accuses ‘ideologues who reject the biological basis of sex’ of employing legal and societal pressures to allow men to self-identify as women, thereby gaining access to spaces and activities meant for women.
Criticizing this as incorrect, the order stipulates: “Accordingly, my Administration will defend women’s rights and protect freedom of conscience by using clear and accurate language and policies that recognize women are biologically female, and men are biologically male.”
While providing definitions for the terms ‘female’ and ‘male’, the order inadvertently implies that every human being is initially female.
It defines: “Female” means a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the large reproductive cell.”
For those who may not recall their biology lessons, here’s a refresher.
Initially, all embryos are in a ‘unisex’ state during the first few weeks post-conception. This state serves as a template for female bodies, with those possessing an XY genotype typically beginning male development approximately six weeks later.
As outlined in a report by the National Library of Medicine: “All human individuals—whether they have an XX, an XY, or an atypical sex chromosome combination—begin development from the same starting point. During early development the gonads of the fetus remain undifferentiated; that is, all fetal genitalia are the same and are phenotypically female.”
While those drafting the executive order may have overlooked this, it hasn’t escaped notice on Twitter.
A user remarked: “In case you missed it, Trump issued an executive order yesterday declaring all Americans’ gender is determined at the moment of conception. All human zygotes are female at the moment of conception. Donald Trump just created approximately 160 million F2M transgender people.”
Another added: “Fun fact, the zygote is coded as female at conception so saying sex is defined at conception like Trumps executive order stats means we’re all assigned female at conception. It takes 6-7 weeks of gestation for sex to determine your assigned gender at birth. Let’s go girls!”
Ultimately, officials interpreting the order are likely to focus on its intended interpretation rather than the scientific implications.
Nonetheless, it’s rather ironic that in an effort to prevent men from ‘self-identifying as women’, Trump inadvertently assigned them a different gender.