January 24, 2025

 

Dear Sir or Ma’am,

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I am a constituent of your municipality, and I am writing with grave concerns for the ramifications of the Executive Order entitled “DEFENDING WOMEN FROM GENDER IDEOLOGY EXTREMISM AND RESTORING BIOLOGICAL TRUTH TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT”.

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My initial concerns lie with the biological terms defined within this Executive Order and the lack of scientific and biological veracity to these definitions. Proven, established science has determined true biology as such:

“Each embryo starts out with a pair of primitive organs, the proto-gonads, that develop into male or female gonads at about six to eight weeks. Sex differentiation is usually set in motion by a gene on the Y chromosome, the SRY gene, that makes the proto-gonads turn into testes. The testes then secrete testosterone and other male hormones (collectively called androgens), and the fetus develops a prostate, scrotum, and penis. Without the SRY gene, the proto-gonads become ovaries that secrete estrogen, and the fetus develops female anatomy (uterus, vagina, and clitoris).

But the SRY gene’s function isn’t always straightforward. The gene might be missing or dysfunctional, leading to an XY embryo that fails to develop male anatomy and is identified at birth as a girl. Or it might show up on the X chromosome, leading to an XX embryo that does develop male anatomy and is identified at birth as a boy.

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Genetic variations can occur that are unrelated to the SRY gene, such as complete androgen insensitivity syndrome (CAIS), in which an XY embryo’s cells respond minimally, if at all, to the signals of male hormones. Even though the proto-gonads become testes and the fetus produces androgens, male genitals don’t develop. The baby looks female, with a clitoris and vagina, and in most cases will grow up feeling herself to be a girl.”1

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My concern lies not only with a very skewed and factually incorrect definition of human biology being written and codified into US legislation and law, but also the abject absence of intersex people in this rigid binary.

Will intersex people be recognized by the government or will they be forcibly surgically mutilated to align with this false binary?

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Additionally, this Executive Order refers consistently to “intimate spaces” without designating or defining what an “intimate space” is, and then further aims to delineate these spaces by gender. What is prohibiting zealous politicians from designating spaces like, for example, a CEO’s boardroom, the executive suite of a corporation, or even the halls of Congress, as a “male only” space based on this Executive Order? As the Order continues, the term “intimate space” is even dropped, indicating: “The Attorney General shall issue guidance to ensure the freedom to express the binary nature of sex and the right to single-sex spaces in workplaces and federally funded entities covered by the Civil Rights Act of 1964.” Who will be policing what those “single-sex spaces in workplaces” are and will be, and how will this be enforced as to not appropriate professional spaces as male-only to effectively prohibit women from working freely in any and all American workplaces?

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Finally, on what basis is this Executive Order drawn? There are virtually no examples of transgender individuals raiding bathrooms to harm women.

There are, however, vast and descript statistics of cisgender men sexually assaulting women and children within the walls of churches and houses of worship throughout this nation. Why are the 836 reported cases of sexual assault and rape committed by cisgender men within houses of worship, as reported over the past five years, not grounds for immediate and aggressive Executive action to protect women and children in those spaces?

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This is clearly transphobic rhetoric designed to attempt to eliminate transgender individuals, force our populace into a strict- if imaginary- gender binary, and clearly delineate and record who the women are in this nation. What purpose would this have except further divisive and discriminatory action against women, once they are all clearly named and identified?

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As a constituent and an American, I demand you represent the wishes of your constituency and challenge this nonsensical and targeted Executive Order, and that you demand biological truth and scientific fact, and not Christian Nationalist opinion, be the basis of executive action for our nation.

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Respectfully,

Concerned Citizen [Your Name Here]

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1Johnson, L. (n.d.). How science is helping us understand gender. Education- National Geographic. https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/how-science-is-helping-us-understand-gender/