Hi friend,
The two weeks since 47’s been back in office have been exhausting, depressing, frightening, and just… incredibly confusing.
There’s so much to talk about, and so much to sort through, but today I want to address a very specific topic that’s been coming up a lot since inauguration day: the executive order that our country will henceforth only be recognizing two sexes: female and male.
Normally, I would just dive right in, ranting about the sociological and psychological implications of such an order, focusing on the people who will be most harmed by it, and exploring how we can understand this topic through a liberatory lens.
But what I’ve noticed over the last few weeks is that people are feeling incredibly overwhelmed by all the rapid-fire news stories coming out, as well as by the increased disinformation/misinformation, lies, and disagreements about what’s actually happening.
People (myself included) are finding it incredibly hard to keep up and hard to know who to trust right now, which makes it hard to feel confident speaking up about it. And I believe that’s all by design, by the way. People who are overwhelmed, confused, scared, and unsure what’s happening and who to trust are much less likely to resist or fight back.
But either way, I’ve decided to step way outside my comfort zone and take a stab at a new kind of article today—more journalism than personal development—and attempt to break down this particular executive order (EO) in a way that helps you feel clear, confident, and empowered to understand and talk about it.
So let’s get into it.
What does this executive order actually say?
Each of 47’s new executive orders are published on the white house’s official website, and you can find this one there under the title “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism And Restoring Biological Truth To The Federal Government.”
Don’t worry if you can’t bring yourself to carefully read and process it. I did that for you, but I’m sharing the link directly here in case you want to read it yourself.
I also think it’s important for everyone to know that these executive orders are published in their totality there. Because while we once trusted our news sources to report the facts and summarize important stories for us, and most people haven’t written a properly sourced research paper since college (if ever), I think the skill of finding and understanding primary sources is a skill we must now all be working to improve.
Anyway, according to this document, “it is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female. These sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality.”
Notice that this language is about sex, not gender– that’s important. Because a person’s sex is determined by a person’s physical attributes like chromosomes, hormones, and genitalia, whereas gender is a social construct made up of the relevant cultural and social norms, behaviors and roles, most often associated with the traits typically associated with one sex.
At this point, the EO is only talking about biological sex, but that isn’t actually as clear-cut or obvious of a biological “fact” as most people think, so naturally they have to provide a definition for what counts as biologically “male” and “female.”
They do this with the following definitions:
(d) “Female” means a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the large reproductive cell.
(e) “Male” means a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the small reproductive cell.
Let’s pause there for a moment.
I’ve heard a lot of people saying that the wording of the EO here makes us all biologically female, because they chose to define a person’s sex by their moment of conception. (For what it’s worth, I believe they use this language intentionally to further their goal of banning and/or criminalizing abortion.)
The reason people might say this is because at the moment of conception, the zygote (ie: the fertilized egg), has no gonads with which to produce any reproductive cells, big (ie: eggs) or small (ie: sperm).
It’s true that a fetus doesn’t start to develop differentiated gonads until around seven to nine weeks of development, and that all fetuses are considered phenotypically female until that point. However, this EO is not totally wrong to say that a zygote’s sex is established at conception, if (and only if) we’re talking about an overly simplified and generally unprovable understanding of the zygote’s chromosomes.
Essentially, the sex of a zygote is determined by the sex chromosome carried by the sperm that fertilizes the egg, and most of them do fall into one of the two main sex categories, male or female.
For the majority of zygotes, the sperm will either carry an X chromosome (XX), which will make the fetus female, or it will carry a Y chromosome, which will make the fetus male (XY).
However, chromosomal variations can sometimes occur, resulting in a combination of chromosomes other than XX or XY (for example: XXY or XYY), sometimes multiple zygotes combine and develop into a single fetus (resulting in a combination of XX and XY), and sometimes the hormonal environment in utero can lead to a fetus developing a wide variety of combinations with respect to chromosomes, reproductive organs, genitals, and secondary sex characteristics (ie: breasts, facial hair, adam’s apple), that don’t fit easily into one category of the other.
Under such circumstances, the fetus would be known as “intersex”, which is an umbrella category that includes about forty different variations of sex, none of which fit easily into the category of “male” or “female.”
Almost 2% of the global population fall under the “intersex” umbrella, which is about the same percentage of the population as redheads, by the way, so we’re not talking about an insignificant percentage of the population!
But this EO never mentions the existence of intersex people anywhere, so while their definition of sex being definable at conception may be (technically) scientifically accurate for most people, their assertion that “'Sex' shall refer to an individual’s immutable biological classification as either male or female.” (sec. 2a) sure as hell isn’t.
Also, unless you happen to be using IVF to get pregnant, it’s pretty much impossible to actually know the sex of the zygote at conception, because testing would be too dangerous, and would most likely lead to a termination of the pregnancy. Plus, in practice in the real world, the “sex of a baby” isn’t determined by their chromosomes at all.
Medical professionals aren’t usually testing the fetus’s chromosomes before telling the parents the sex of the baby, for example, they’re just looking at the ultrasound and determining the sex based on whether or not they see a penis.
And if you wait to find out the sex of the baby until birth, sex will be determined by a quick visual scan of the shape and size of the baby’s genitalia. Not chromosomes, and certainly not the size of the reproductive cells produced by the baby’s gonads. It’s determined by the appearance of the genitalia. And as established already in the paragraph about intersix folks, a baby’s genitalia may or may not align with their chromosomes, internal reproductive organs, or their later development of secondary sex characteristics, in a way that places them neatly into the category of male or female.
Whew. Ok.
If you’re still with me, I want to say thank you.
I know the biology can be a bit dry, and I assure you I would much rather be telling you how angry I am that this fucking administration is intentionally making the world unsafe for transgender, non-binary, and intersex people (who have always existed, and will always exist), but I think it’s important to properly understand the science.
Moving on.
The EO clearly states that “'Sex' is not a synonym for and does not include the concept of 'gender identity.'"
It then goes on to say in section 2, however, that “the following definitions shall govern all Executive interpretation of and application of Federal law and administration policy:
(b)“Women” or “woman” and “girls” or “girl” shall mean adult and juvenile human females, respectively.
(c) “Men” or “man” and “boys” or “boy” shall mean adult and juvenile human males, respectively.
Here’s where they’re making a big (and dangerous) leap, from sex to gender.
Essentially they’re saying that even though they can’t determine a person’s gender identity—which they admit “reflects a fully internal and subjective sense of self, disconnected from biological reality and sex and existing on an infinite continuum” (sec. 2g) —that the government will henceforth only be recognizing gender as an extension of biological sex.
In other words, it doesn’t matter how you identify or present your gender, the government will only be recognizing sex.
And since we know most people will never find out what chromosomes were actually present at the moment of their conception, this will basically just come down to the visual scan someone did of their genitals at their time of birth.
Penis? Male.
Vagina? Female.
End of story.
Nevermind that you could have a penis and ovaries, or a vagina and testes. Nevermind that you could have a penis and XX chromosomes, or a vagina and XY chromosomes. Nevermind that your secondary sex characteristics could develop in a variety of non-traditional ways when you hit puberty, or that you could know deep in your bones that you’re a man, even though you were born into a body marked “female” at birth.
And certainly nevermind how upset they’ll be later about a “male/man” who goes around wearing dresses, heels, and makeup… or how outraged they’ll be if a “woman/female” gets on testosterone and then tries to pee in the lady’s room with a full beard, deep voice, and masculine physique.
According to this EO, your sex is determined by chromosomes and the size of the reproductive cells you make, even though it’s your genitals that will most likely be used to determine your sex, and those don’t always match up. And while you can still privately identify as any gender you like, the government will henceforth only be recognizing your sex. Except—wait!— they are going to recognize gender, by using terms like boy/man and girl/woman… as long as those terms are understood only to mean “human male” or “human female.”
Put another way, they’ve just put out a legal document saying transgender, intersex, and non-binary people either don’t exist, or aren’t allowed to exist. The government will longer recognize them, and they will no longer be able to change their official paperwork in ways that allow them to stay safe, protect themselves, or thrive.
Having a driver’s license, passport, birth certificate, or other documentation that aligns with your gender identity is a critical step for avoiding discrimination, harassment, and violence for gender non-conforming people (not to mention for supporting mental health and preventing suicide!) and the administration has just made that illegal.
While they’re not making it illegal for people to transition socially or medically (yet), and it’s still legal to dress and act however you want, this mandate simultaneously erases, invalidates and villainizes all transgender, intersex, and gender non-conforming people. It gives both legal and social permission to discriminate against, exclude, and hate people who don’t conform to a binary gender expression, and it will forcibly “out” a huge number of people who might otherwise have been able to fit into society as their true, happy, thriving selves.
This “outing” will cause a population that is already four times more likely to be the victim of a violent crime, up to seventeen times more likely to experience homelessness, and significantly more likely to attempt and commit suicide than the general population, to face higher levels of discrimination, harassment, and violence than ever before. And it will undoubtedly prove to have a catastrophic toll on their mental health as well.
Plus, based on what’s written in the EO, this mandate will also be used to…
Keep transgender people out of sports at all levels, as well as ensuring transgender people do not have equal access to a wide variety of safe spaces, interventions, resources, support, and opportunities.You may agree women should have private spaces, but do you think transgender women will be welcome and safe in men’s shelters, men’s sports, or men’s bathrooms? Do you think transgender men will be welcome in women’s shelters, women’s sports, or women’s bathrooms? Of course not, because no matter how they try to define sex by chromosomes and genitals, most day to day gender attribution is done by looking at a person and getting a “feel” for their gender.
Sec. 4d: “Agencies shall effectuate this policy by taking appropriate action to ensure that intimate spaces designated for women, girls, or females (or for men, boys, or males) are designated by sex and not identity.”
Incentivise companies, organizations, and individuals to not be queer-friendly, queer-inclusive, or queer-affirming.
Sec. 4g: “Federal funds shall not be used to promote gender ideology. Each agency shall assess grant conditions and grantee preferences and ensure grant funds do not promote gender ideology.”
Make transgender women serve time in men’s prisons, where they’ll undoubtedly face increased violence, and be forced to detransition due to a lack of access to life-saving gender-affirming medical care.
Sec. 4 a: “The Attorney General and Secretary of Homeland Security shall ensure that males are not detained in women’s prisons or housed in women’s detention centers.”
Sec. 4c: “The Attorney General shall ensure that the Bureau of Prisons revises its policies concerning medical care to be consistent with this order, and shall ensure that no Federal funds are expended for any medical procedure, treatment, or drug for the purpose of conforming an inmate’s appearance to that of the opposite sex.”
In short, this EO is designed to legally strip gender non-conforming people of equal access to protections, resources, medical care, opportunities, and indeed the very right to exist and belong as contributing members of society.
It’s not about “common sense” or “biology,” it’s about exclusion, bigotry, and hate… and so many people will suffer and die because of it.
Not because I’m non-binary (or maybe I should start saying: anti-binary) and transgender, but because I’m far more comfortable with the deep processing of ideas, emotions, and social patterns than I am with trying to wrap my head around and explain the details of legal-speak and biology. But my gut says without a clear and comprehensive understanding of the issues, our collective ability to do deep processing—let alone turn it into empowered action—will completely fall off a cliff.
We’re all in this together, and the last thing we need right now is to let confusion and overwhelm turn our passion for justice and liberation into despair and apathy.
So please let me know if you want more of this kind of content, and if you do, feel free to leave a comment and tell me what issue, executive order, or news story you want to see broken down or explained next.
Here to fight,
Jessi
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