On January 20, 2025, the United States Government issued the executive order “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.” The document formally defines gender as strictly biologically male, as those who produce small reproductive cells, and biologically female, as those who produce large reproductive cells. 

The small and large reproductive cells are the sperm and eggs that people naturally produce based on whether they are XY or XX sex chromosomes. The problem with this definition is the fact that people don’t always feel comfortable identifying themselves based on the gender they were born, and from a biological standpoint—due to mutations or other factors—not all people produce reproductive cells nor do they always have a perfect XY or XX sex chromosomes, and could have less or more (1 in 400 male and 1 in 650 female births). This definition leaves out biological accuracy, and it also ignores people who don’t produce gametes or reproductive cells.

Although it is true that males have XY and females have XX sex chromosomes, that is not the only thing that differentiates the two, and it is also not realistic for the 21st century.  Characteristics that typically define male and female fall on a spectrum, rather than just two strictly defined peaks. Therefore, sex cannot just be determined based on the gametes one produces. 

Trump also named this executive order “Defending Women,” but wouldn’t it do the opposite? He meant women, as those who produce large gametes and are XX, but some identify as women, or are intersex (about 1.7% of the population), or who don’t produce gametes, all of whom are no longer protected by our government.

Defunding Research

On top of signing executive orders that add gender specifications to the Federal government, President Trump is threatening the freedom of scientific research. Close to home, our beloved Red Hook Farms was hit with significant defunding and lost $100k for air quality research in the neighborhood. Scientific research is vital for myriad reasons, and I’m sure you can guess how significant and harmful it is that our government is defunding it. 

While on the campaign trail, Trump promised to do the opposite of what he is doing now. According to the Washington Post, Trump had “vowed to supercharge U.S. scientific research efforts,” especially for cancer and Alzheimer’s. Instead, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding has dropped by more than $3 billion, preventing ongoing research and prompting layoffs, and also terminating grants, specifically those on LGBTQ+ issues, coronavirus vaccines, and whatever else they say aren’t priorities. Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania also lost hundreds of millions in federal funds on the grounds that the schools did “too little to combat antisemitism and too much to support transgender athletes, respectively.” Other affected universities have also paused hiring and cut staff. 

The United States is thought of and also prides itself on being such a modern country that is the first to produce some new cutting-edge innovation or information through its advanced labs and scientists, but wouldn’t that all change now? Many colleges and research facilities are now unable to hire researchers with PhDs, which means that whatever research is able to continue will not be run by professional scientists with advanced knowledge. 

Overall, this cutting of federal funding for research is terrifying for so many reasons, and also raises the question of how, since the government is now determining what is worth researching and what isn’t, couldn’t they now use science to control the public opinion of issues? And couldn’t this limitation of what is being researched also be used as a kind of censorship?

Sources:

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00780-2

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/03/28/trump-administration-science-research-cuts/

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/01/30/2025-02090/defending-women-from-gender-ideology-extremism-and-restoring-biological-truth-to-the-federal

https://www.britannica.com/science/human-genetic-disease/Abnormalities-of-the-sex-chromosomes