September 23, 2025

Transparent Hypocrisy: Part Two

By Laura Trachtman

In my previous post about President Trump’s Executive Order, we discussed his blatant hypocrisy and pandering to bigots in determining that sex is a binary construct. We’re going to continue our examination of the second part of this policy, and how it is just plain wrong.

Now, in full disclosure, this is going to be a post addressing mostly science and history/sociology, but the idiocy of it all continues to vex me, so bear with me. Or, tune in soon for part three, where I return to the law.

The Executive Order reads:

Sec. 2. Policy and Definitions. 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. Under my direction, the Executive Branch will enforce all sex-protective laws to promote this reality, and 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.”

(b) “Women” or “woman” and “girls” or “girl” shall mean adult and juvenile human females, respectively.

(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.

(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.

(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.

You’ll note that I have highlighted Sections 2d and 2e above. Why? Because even as an indifferent science student, I remember that at conception, every single fetus is female. This is why men have nipples, because fetuses develop nipples before the biological sex is determined by chromosomes.

Knowing that simply because I say something doesn’t make it true, this book, Understanding the Biology of Sex and Gender Differences; Wizemann TM, Pardue ML, editors. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 2001, confirms my recollection (emphasis supplied):

All human individuals—whether they have an XX, an XY, or an atypical sex chromosome combination—begin development from the same starting point. During early development the gonads of the fetus remain undifferentiated; that is, all fetal genitalia are the same and are phenotypically female. After approximately 6 to 7 weeks of gestation, however, the expression of a gene on the Y chromosome induces changes that result in the development of the testes. Thus, this gene is singularly important in inducing testis development. The production of testosterone at about 9 weeks of gestation results in the development of the reproductive tract and the masculinization (the normal development of male sex characteristics) of the brain and genitalia. In contrast to the role of the fetal testis in differentiation of a male genital tract and external genitalia in utero, fetal ovarian secretions are not required for female sex differentiation. As these details point out, the basic differences between the sexes begin in the womb, and this chapter examines how sex differences develop and change across the lifetime. The committee examined both normal and abnormal routes of development that lead individuals to become males and females and the changes during childhood, reproductive adulthood, and the later stages of life.

Obviously, this disproves President Trump’s assertion that gender is immutable, as all festus are female at conception, and only later do they transform into males (or others!).

President Trump also asserted in Section 2a that gender is a binary. Please note that aside from confirming that all humans are female at conception, this article also acknowledges that there exist atypical sex chromosome combinations, thus defying the assertion that gender is a binary.

We’re going to move on to gender ideology and gender identity. Not only are there myriad examples of trans people in today’s society, there have been trans individuals since society began. Before you scoff at the ignorant pre-historical people and say that they don’t count, Generals Casimir Pulaski (1745-1779), who saved George Washington’s life at the Battle of Brandywine in 1777 and who died fighting for the Revolution, and James Barry (1789-1865), who served across the British Empire and fought to improve living conditions for the soldiers who served under him, were both trans men. Many Americans know about two-spirit American Indians, and Zapotecan muxes, but there are also other people as well across the globe. To insist that, because our American culture does not celebrate a third gender, there is no third gender, is just ignorant.

If you take away nothing else from this post, please read this: it’s no one’s business, especially our government, what’s in anyone else’s pants. If you are a believer in any of the Abrahamic religions, please review Genesis 1:27. If you find yourself wondering whether someone you interact with is male or female or trans or something else, you can politely ask them what their pronouns are, or you can remind yourself that it is truly none of your business.