After President Donald Trump signed an executive order declaring two distinct sexes as the policy of the U.S., Delaware Democratic Representative Sarah McBride, the first transgender member of Congress, mocked the order by pointing out a significant biological error.
On his first day in office, Trump issued an executive order aimed at redefining sex and targeting what the order referred to as "gender ideology." The order specifies that "female" is defined as "a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the large reproductive cell," and "male" as "a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the small reproductive cell."
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But in remarks to The Independent, McBride quickly highlighted inaccuracies in this definition:
“Well, it appears that he just declared everyone a woman from conception based on the language of the executive order."
Indeed, scientific evidence shows that genitalia at conception are “phenotypically female.”
For the first several weeks after conception, all human embryos follow a “female” developmental pattern. Only at approximately six weeks, when the SRY gene on the Y chromosome is activated in XY embryos, does sexual differentiation begin. Until this point, embryos develop traits linked to the X chromosome.
This didn't escape other critics of the order who proceeded to mock it profusely.
Trump's order also targeted what it called "gender ideology," defined as "replacing the biological category of sex with an ever-shifting concept of self-assessed gender identity."
It stated that this ideology supports the "false claim that males can identify as and thus become women and vice versa," mandating federal institutions to remove any policies, communications, or regulations that recognize gender identity in this way.
Additionally, the order mandates that transgender women cannot be housed in women’s prisons or detention centers. The Federal Bureau of Prisons has been directed to revise its policies, ensuring no federal funds are used for "any medical procedure, treatment, or drug for the purpose of conforming an inmate’s appearance to that of the opposite sex."
McBride said that when she first heard about the order, she stayed in her chair and did not clap, but "neither did many people in that room."
She stressed that "no executive action, no legislative action for that matter, can erase the reality of diversity across gender in our society" even while acknowledging that "there may be consequences for privacy for some LGBTQ people with regards to identity documents" and "across federal programs."
