Ideology and Gender

This letter to the editor, by Celeste Koeberl, JD, MA, appeared in the Hudson Star Observer on March 6, 2025.

Among his Day 1 executive orders, Mr. Trump banned the use of the word “gender” by federal agencies and employees in his objection to so-called “gender ideology”.

While this executive order does not change existing federal or state constitutional or statutory law, we still might wonder: What’s “gender”? What’s “ideology”? What’s “gender ideology”? And what’s this all about, anyway?

“Gender” is our shared cultural and societal understanding of what makes a girl girly, a boy boyish, a woman womanly, and a man a real man. Different cultures and societies have differing understandings. Within a single culture or society, understandings change with times and circumstances.

“Ideology” is a system of ideas both to explain the world and to change it. 

In his executive order, Mr. Trump defines “gender ideology” as replacing “female” or “male” sex categories with a spectrum of genders disconnected from “biological sex”. Instead, he defines “sex” as either “female” or “male” by reference only to reproductive cells present at conception. 

But defining sex as two easily determined categories is unsupported by science and oversimplifies human biology. The National Institutes of Health defines “biological sex” as “a multi-dimensional biological construct based on anatomy, physiology, genetics, and hormones.” 

Sexual differentiation occurs during fetal development, driven by genetic and hormonal factors. While XX and XY chromosomes are often associated with female and male sexes, variations such as XXY, XYY, and others also occur in about 1 in 1,500 to 1 in 2,000 live births, now numbering approximately 200,000 to 330,000 Americans. Primary sex characteristics of genitalia and reproductive organs, along with secondary characteristics of body hair and breast development, are shaped by genetics and hormones. It’s not uncommon for individuals to have atypical combinations of chromosomes, hormones, or anatomy that challenge a binary model of sex assignment. 

Mr. Trump’s executive order presents a particular gender ideology that is prejudiced, irrational, and scientifically unsupported.