On 20 January this year, 2025, Donald John Trump was officially inaugurated as the 47th President of the United States of America. Having previously served as the 45th President, Trump became only the second man to have ever lost an American presidential election and be subsequently returned to the White House (an anomaly previously held by Grover Cleveland). His hiatus from the Oval Office, however, didn’t seem to hinder him from implementing drastic policy changes for America within the first few hours of his presidency. With frenetic federal fervour, he revoked 78 executive orders from the Biden administration and signed some 26 of his own, which included withdrawing America from the World Health Organisation, establishing DOGE (the Department of Government Efficiency) to be led by Elon Musk, and most interesting to me (a biologist), an order on how biological sex is to be defined in America.
Entitled Defending women from gender ideology extremism and restoring biological truth to the federal government, the executive order is presented in a feminist frame. It expresses particular worry about the existence of transgender women and condemns those who “permit men to self-identify as women and gain access to intimate single-sex spaces and activities designed for women”. Less concern for the safety of women was shown in the pardons President Trump gave to January 6th rioters which included in their ranks multiple cisgender men charged or facing charges for violent and sexual crimes against women. For example, the registered child sex offender Theodore Middendorf who is in prison for predatory sexual assault on a 7-year-old involving sexual penetration no longer needs to worry about any additional prison time from his guilty plea to “destruction of government property” on January 6th, thanks to Trump’s universal pardon.
Less universal in its compassion, the executive order affirms that the White House recognises exactly two sexes, male and female, which are “not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality”. The order goes on to specify the biological definitions of male and female according to the federal government and polices how language and funding is to be used when referring to sex or gender. While the executive order is lengthy in its detail, the definitions prescribed for “male” and “female” suffer from the notable disadvantage of making no biological sense:
““Female” means a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the large reproductive cell.
““Male” means a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the small reproductive cell.”
The order specifies that sex is to be determined at the point of conception (i.e. the fertilised zygote) and based on the ability to produce large (eggs) or small (sperm) reproductive cells. The large-or-small issue is that no zygote can produce either reproductive cell at the point of conception because it is, at this stage, just a single cell itself. Indeed, humans don’t even have the first precursors to reproductive organs until around day 12 of embryogenesis. And even after this, the precursor cells develop into gonads in an indifferent, sexless manner for at least four weeks. It takes until week 8 for the gonads to have differentiated into testes and week 10 for ovaries. If biological sex is to now be defined in America based on reproductive cells at the point of conception, it would appear that no American meets the definitions for either ‘male’ or ‘female’. In this way then, all Americans are, as of 20 January 2025, non-binary.
This means that America has already had their first non-binary president. Indeed, America has only ever had non-binary presidents, including Mr/Ms/Mx Trump themself, who signed the very order that made it so. This should come as great news to the non-binary community at large who have gained over 300 million new members with the entire population of America.
Of course, these are obviously unintended consequences of an incompetently worded executive order but at the very least they lend some credence to a quote allegedly given by Mary-Anne Trump, Donald’s mother:
“Yes, he’s [sic] an idiot with zero common sense, and no social skills, but he IS my son [sic]. I just hope he [sic] never goes into politics. He’d [sic] be a disaster.” [note: this gendered language is no longer accurate and in breach of federal policy]
The author is a PhD student in the Dunleavy Lab at the Centre for Chromosome Biology in the university. The lab’s research focuses on gametogenesis (sperm / egg production) and early embryonic development.
You can see more entertaining and educational content from the author on social media: @biology_with_ben
