Trump’s Executive Order on Biology, Sex, and Gender: Mostly Very Good But a Few Missteps (Part II)

(See Part I Published with Cathoilic365 on January 29, 2025)

As was the case for Part I, what I will now do is continue to quote sections of the executive order 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 aspect of the “transgender” movement.

From Section 2:

(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.

Comment: Fantastic.  Note the emphasis of the reality of each person becoming either male or female AT CONCEPTION.  Despite the ongoing and all-too prevalent anti-scientific propaganda to the contrary, it is a definitive biological fact that all human beings enjoy the first moment of their lives distinct from their mothers’ lives at the first moment of their conception.  Not before and not after.  This affirmation of when human life begins is another testament to God’s creative order and how He has specifically arranged things for humans to share in the giving of life to others.

From Section 2:

(f) “Gender ideology” replaces the biological category of sex with an ever-shifting concept of self-assessed gender identity, permitting the false claim that males can identify as and thus become women and vice versa, and requiring all institutions of society to regard this false claim as true.  Gender ideology includes the idea that there is a vast spectrum of genders that are disconnected from one’s sex.  Gender ideology is internally inconsistent, in that it 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.”

Comment: Keeping in mind what I wrote previously about the reality that sex and gender are synonyms, this section also points out more objective truths in opposition to the subjective word games and ideologies used by those who push irrational gender ideology.  To be sure, there is no spectrum of genders, and gender and/or sex cannot be separated from either the male or female body wherein such manifest themselves individually.

From Section 2:

(g) “Gender identity” reflects a fully internal and subjective sense of self, disconnected from biological reality and sex and existing on an infinite continuum that does not provide a meaningful basis for identification and cannot be recognized as a replacement for sex.

Comment: Referring to what I explained earlier, what we have here is really a proper definition of False (or Erroneous) Gender Identity, and this executive order would be better served and better serve the public by spelling out the legitimate distinction between a False Gender Identity and a Correct Gender Identity.  Moreover, being able to properly identify one’s gender is part of one’s basic cognitive skills one first reaches at a very young age, and legitimate psycho-medical intervention to help those who cannot make a proper identification of their gender (or sex) gain the ability to do so is a most worthy practice.  Redefining gender identity to include only its erroneous conclusions is itself erroneous, and this all stems from the previously mentioned error of not recognizing the synonymous relationship between sex and gender.

From Section 3:

(c) When administering or enforcing sex-based distinctions, every agency and all Federal employees acting in an official capacity on behalf of their agency shall use the term “sex” and not “gender” in all applicable Federal policies and documents.

Comment: For the reasons already stated regarding the fact that gender and sex have been and are still rightly used interchangeably as synonyms for each other, this giving up on what could arguably be the more accurate of the two terms (consider some of the other words that also have the same root as gender such as genetics, genesis, generate, genitalia, genealogy, and so on) is a significant unforced error that, once again, helps keep open the door to the false claim that gender and sex are different.  Those who promote “transgenderism” will disingenuously and laughingly claim that they agree in part with President Trump’s order for the government to make use only of the term sex and not gender because they have also always maintained that gender and sex are different things.  It should be obvious to anyone with at least an average functioning brain that proponents of “transgenderism” coined and use that overall term and related ones to reflect their fundamental ideology that genders can be changed or transitioned even if sex cannot be….

…But eliminate the false and malevolent notion that sex and gender are different and the destructive argument that one can be a particular sex but different gender is completely obliterated as it should be.  A missed opportunity by President Trump and his advisors to strike at the very heart of “transgenderism,” but for the rest of us, and as I stated in “Good People: Please, Please, Please Stop Using Terminology That Promotes an Anti-God Agenda,” and also quoted in Part I of this article:

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.

There is indeed much to be applauded in President Trump’s Executive Order because it does damage many harmful elements of the “transgender” movement, but much, much more remains to be done if we are ever to eliminate the scourge of “transgenderism.”  St. Michael the Archangel: Defend Us In Battle!

(The remainder of the Executive Order is concerned primarily with the implementation of the order, and so it will not be commented on by yours truly.)