The Trump Administration announced an executive order “restoring biological truth to the federal government”. There’s a lot to talk about here, but let's focus on this so-called "biological truth".
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To “biologically” define males and females, the administration refers to “at conception, the sex that produces the [large/small] reproductive cell”. Let’s break down (1) this definition, and (2) how we define sex in biology.
(1a) This phrasing “at conception”, when there is just a single cell, is especially odd. There can be no reproductive cells, because there is just one cell type.
(1b) By this definition, to be defined as male or female one must produce a reproductive cell. That means people who are postmenopausal, who are not producing reproductive cells, are neither male nor female. This of course makes no sense.
(1c) Another example of why this definition doesn’t make sense is that ~1 in 80,000 people have Swyer syndrome, aka have XY chromosomes but have traditionally female external genitalia and some internal genitalia like a uterus. Folks with this syndrome produce no reproductive cells.
(2) How do we define sex in biology? It is by definition multifactorial with four categories: sex chromosomes, internal genitalia, external genitalia, and sex hormones.
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