LGBT

President Donald Trump published two executive orders late Monday that targeted transgender people, but critics couldn't help but note that the clunky language declared all Americans legally female.

One of Trump's order is titled "Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government." In the definition, the order claims, "'Female' means a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the large reproductive cell." It then says, “'Male' means a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the small reproductive cell."

What critics point out is the crucial phrase "at conception." According to the Associated Press, the second "order declares that the federal government would recognize only two immutable sexes: male and female. And they’re to be defined based on whether people are born with eggs or sperm, rather than on their chromosomes, according to details of the upcoming order."

Such data isn't determined at conception, nor does a fetus have "eggs" or "sperm."

Dr. Emily Willingham, who has a PhD in biology, has "written about genitalia, brains, biology, and parenting." So, when she saw the order's wording, she couldn't help but give a lesson on biology on Blue Sky.

"Conception results in a single cell that does not have gonads or make gametes, obviously. It's weeks into development before the organs for pelvic anatomy start to be established, and even then, how they'll develop isn't a given," she began. "During development, a mix of structures can be retained. Plenty of people born XY walking around with little fallopian tube remnants. People don't start producing 'small reproductive cells' until they enter puberty. The large reproductive cell technically isn't produced unless a sperm fuses with it."

"During development, the cells that will give rise to future 'small' and 'large' reproductive cells can settle in a way that ultimately, the precursors for both will be made. Some people develop in a way that leads to no production of reproductive cells of any kind, small or large," she continued.

"Chromosomal complement does not infallibly predict these outcomes. External and internal anatomy and physiology do not infallibly align, much less fall neatly into a binary. I know these people don't care. But I care about developmental biology and despise this willful, useless ignorance designed to hurt people," she closed.

"Read these two sections from the Trump orders--the first from the anti-trans order and the second from the birthright citizenship order--and ask yourself how they will be enforced by a president who still doesn't believe in Obama's birth certificate," said ACLU communications strategist Gillian Branstetter on Blue Sky.

"Having defined sex as immutable, the Trump EO still insists it must be measured at conception," agreed legal analyst Luppe B. Luppen.

Author, game designer and transgender woman, Crystal Frasier wrote on Blue Sky, "In that familiar old incompetence I haven't missed, Trump's executive order defines sex as what a person is at CONCEPTION. Fetal sex doesn't begin to differentiate until about 7 weeks into gestation. Which means Donald used the highest office in the land to declare all Americans legally female."