Summary

Donald Trump signed an executive order declaring only two sexes, male and female, based on reproductive cells at conception, banning gender-affirming care, and limiting federal recognition of gender diversity.

Experts, including Dr. Richard Bribiescas, president of the Human Biology Association, criticized the policy as nonsensical, stating, “Clearly, this order is not fully informed by current biological science.”

Biologists noted the order oversimplifies human biology, ignores intersex individuals, and conflates sex and gender.

Critics warned it advances anti-trans rhetoric and risks legal challenges.

  • NautiNolana@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    I don’t necessarily support the law, but your take saying “everyone is legally nonbinary” is ridiculous. At conception, if you were able to remove and examine the genetic material in the cell, it would absolutely be apparent if it was XY or XX.

    I love bashing Trump and his idiocy… but this is definitely not the way. It’s embarrassing for us liberals…

    • aberrate_junior_beatnik@midwest.social
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      1 day ago

      Your karyotype doesn’t determine what kind of gamete you produce.

      See for example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Androgen_insensitivity_syndrome

      AFAIK we don’t have any way to determine this before sex differentiation actually occurs. When sex differentiation occurs it happens as a response to hormones, not karyotype. It’s possible that environment could be the determining factor, as is the case with freemartins.

      So no, it’s not an exaggeration nor embarrassing to say that nobody meets the order’s definition of male or female.

      • notsoshaihulud@lemmy.world
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        17 hours ago

        The WH accidentally invented Schrödinger’s Sex.

        Of course it’s also wrong because unlike dead/alive sex is a bimodally distributed continuum we binarize for simplicity. Also, don’t look up the Schrödinger dude’s sexual preferences because you’ll puke. But that stays on brand too.

    • notsoshaihulud@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      You’re talking about genotype. They define sex based on phenotype. It assumes that the genotype can only be binary (it can be X0, XXY, XYY etc). It also assumes that genotype equates with phenotype, which is also wrong given in utero hormonal exposures, testosterone insensitivity, etc.

      The WH definition makes no sense for anybody familiar with biology beyond 10th grade level.

    • Grail (capitalised)@aussie.zone
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      1 day ago

      However, the law doesn’t talk about genotype. It talks about gametes. Embryos don’t produce gametes. The law does not specify a difference.