Do You Defend Objective Reality? Or Do You Play Along With the Wokies?
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On his first day in office, President Donald J. Trump showed in many respects why his service as President lines up much more closely with Catholic moral principles than his nominally Catholic predecessor who, sadly among many things, very recently joined a Freemason cult organization.
Signing a slew of executive orders to undo a large part of the destructive actions taken by the Biden administration and its fellow travelers, one particular order that President Trump signed is entitled Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government, which was signed on President Trump’s first day of office after he was inaugurated. This document is a serious and mostly very well-reasoned rejection of what can be labeled in general as the malevolent anti-God “transgender” movement that is based on the irrational fantasy that a person created by God as a female can change herself into being a man, and a person created by God as a man can change himself into being a woman.
The executive order is a little over 3 pages long with another extra page or so of referential-type material. What I will now do is quote quite a few sections of the document and add some commentaries along the way. I will also point out a few missteps and why some corrections and clarifications would be even more helpful in combating a fundamental element of the “transgender” movement.
From Section 1: “The erasure of sex in language and policy has a corrosive impact not just on women but on the validity of the entire American system. Basing Federal policy on truth is critical to scientific inquiry, public safety, morale, and trust in government itself.”
Comment: Keep in mind that this document pertains almost exclusively to rejecting “transgender” nonsense involving programs and policies of the Federal Government. In addition, it can also serve as a very important voice on behalf of common sense and natural law principles, and the unequivocal reference to truth is simply beautiful. As the secular world continues to pound away with various forms of relativism such as the recently popular “my truth” hogwash, stating that truth in and of itself will provide the basis for actions is a cause for celebration.
From Section 1: “…an ongoing and purposeful attack against the ordinary and longstanding use and understanding of biological and scientific terms, replacing the immutable biological reality of sex with an internal, fluid, and subjective sense of self unmoored from biological facts.”
Comment: Homing in on the “immutable biological reality of sex” in comparison with the irrational “self unmoored from biological facts” is the key. Indeed, sex cannot change or be changed, and anyone who believes otherwise is simply in denial of biological reality.
From Section 1: “…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.
Comment: The absolute truth. ‘Nuff said.
From Section 2: “It is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female….the following definitions shall govern all Executive interpretation of and application of Federal law and administration policy:
(a) “Sex” shall refer to an individual’s immutable biological classification as either male or female. “Sex” is not a synonym for and does not include the concept of “gender identity.”
Comment: This is a misstep, even though the rationale is understandable. “Sex” is indeed not a synonym for “gender identity,” but gender is a synonym for sex. As I point out in my 3/9/2024 Catholic365 article “Good People: Please, Please, Please Stop Using Terminology That Promotes an Anti-God Agenda”:
“The roots of the term gender come from the Latin genus, which means kind, or kind of thing. As such, one objective and legitimate application of the term gender is the classification (kind of thing) of organisms based on their biological sex. This being so, everyone is a particular and non-changeable gender or kind of thing, which is either the biological male gender or the biological female gender.
Moreover, ever since at least the 15th century, the word gender has been properly recognized and used as a synonym for the biological sexes. As such, this rightful understanding of gender must not be surrendered to the “transgender” movement since they and their fellow travelers use their preferred yet still false definition of gender as a social construct and/or feelings a person has that may or may not coincide with their biological sex/gender to further promote their despicable agenda. We must always insist that gender and biological sex are synonymous to further demonstrate the folly of the "transgender" movement that proudly proclaims biological sex and gender are different.”
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Interestingly, President Trump himself accurately referred to genders instead of sexes in his inaugural address by correctly stating that there are only two genders. Since both terms are synonymous, both terms can still be equally used when referring to males and females. Unfortunately per the executive order, the term gender, as will be further seen in the order, is wrongly discarded and only the term sex is considered to be appropriate for use. Also, gender identity is a legitimate concept when it is used to assess whether or not someone accurately and objectively identifies their sex/gender as either male or female only based on the fundamental and unchangeable biological reality of each person. A male has an accurate and correct gender identity when he rightly identifies himself as a male and no other sex/gender, and of course a female has an accurate and correct gender identity when she rightly identifies herself as a female and no other sex/gender.
Now, even though no administration can prevent the public at large from adopting and using terms inaccurately, this part of the executive order could have also struck a more serious and more damaging blow at the entire “transgender” movement by properly recognizing and promoting the synonymous relationship between gender and sex, and thereby making it more difficult for those in the overall “transgender” movement to continue their malevolence by wrongly insisting that gender and sex are different.
(End of Part I; Part II Coming Soon)
B. Michael Addison is a semi-retired college professor with a Master's Degree in Catholic Theology, a Master's Degree in Economics, and an Advanced Graduate Certificate in Bioethics. He is a life-long Catholic who enjoys writing about all things Catholic as well as current events and the challenges of living Catholic Truth in an increasingly hostile secular world.
