“In an effort to “defend women’s rights” against “efforts to eradicate the biological reality of sex,” the order—titled “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government“—seeks with the force of federal law to establish men and women as distinct and immutable categories.
“It is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female,” which “are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality,” the order states. It defines “sex” as “an individual’s immutable biological classification as either male or female” and notes that the term is “not a synonym for and does not include the concept of ‘gender identity,'” which the order says “does not provide a meaningful basis for identification and cannot be recognized as a replacement for sex.”
Perhaps ironically, supporters of transgender equality might agree with parts of this characterization. “Sex is a label—male or female—that you’re assigned by a doctor at birth based on the genitals you’re born with and the chromosomes you have. It goes on your birth certificate,” according to Planned Parenthood. Gender identity, on the other hand, “is how you feel inside and how you express your gender through clothing, behavior, and personal appearance. It’s a feeling that begins very early in life.”
The executive order defines “female” as “a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the large reproductive cell” and “male” as the opposite—”a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the small reproductive cell.” In other words, anyone with an XX chromosome is a female, and anyone with an XY chromosome is male, with no exceptions. The order tautologically defines “sex” in terms of “male” and “female,” which are then defined in terms of “sex.”
But by ruling so starkly, the order completely writes intersex people out of existence.
“People who are intersex have genitals, chromosomes or reproductive organs that don’t fit into a male/female sex binary,” according to the Cleveland Clinic. “Some people who are intersex consider their gender to be intersex. Others identify as female, male, nonbinary or a different gender.” In this case, a person’s professed gender may change from the one assigned at birth because they literally have biological markers of both. The clinic further notes that one in 100 Americans is estimated to be intersex.
The executive order criticizes “gender ideology,” which it says “replaces the biological category of sex with an ever-shifting concept of self-assessed gender identity” and “diminishes sex as an identifiable or useful category but nevertheless maintains that it is possible for a person to be born in the wrong sexed body.” But intersex people literally are born in the wrong sexed body, at least as defined by the executive order, which says everyone is either all male or all female.”
https://reason.com/2025/01/22/trumps-aggressively-broad-executive-order-on-transgender-people