Are you reeling from the blizzard of Executive Orders coming from the Oval Office since January 20? If so, you are not alone. If you are a fan of Donald Trump, you might wake up every day wondering what new gift is coming your way. If you are not a fan of Donald Trump, you might have trouble going to sleep each night as you worry about what new catastrophe is coming your way. 

According to a CNN tracker, as of 10:40 am EST on February 10, 2025, Trump has issued 89 Executive Orders. Clearly, he intends to make it into the Guinness list of world records – and to make it difficult for his opponents to react to all of them. If you look at the list, there are some that seem benign from the titles. Example: Career and Technical Education Month. OK, what harm could that do? 

From my perspective, the most ironic title of an EO is “Ending the Weaponization of the Federal Government,” given that Trump is absolutely weaponizing the federal government, working to clear it of employees who are not on his side. If that’s not weaponization, what is? Yes, he gets to nominate cabinet picks who are to his liking, but career employees in all of the various agencies have expertise that might be valuable. They should not come and go with each administration because we need experience and expertise gained from that experience.

So, OK, some good, some bad executive orders. Among the more controversial ones are those relating to sex. The order titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” (January 20, 2025) states, “It is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female.” Trans rights activists (TRAs) are wildly opposed to this. As for me, I wonder how we got the point that we need an executive order on this subject. Yes, of course, there are two sexes, male and female. People who quibble about this make a very big deal about people with DSDs (Differences of Sexual Development, or intersex conditions). But the fact is that lots of things can go wrong as an embryo develops, which is why people anxiously wait to find out if a baby is “healthy” once it’s born. 

Some anomalies are clear before birth, some at birth, and some become clear only months or years after birth. Differences of sexual development do, on occasion, make it difficult to tell if a newborn is male or female. Some have hormone anomalies that lead to confusing characteristics as a child matures. Some DSDs only become apparent when a child enters puberty, and some are not realized until a person tries to become a parent. But the fact is that these are anomalies; there are still only two sexes. There is no third or fourth sex. In fact, in all  creatures that are dimorphic (two different body types), there are only two sexes. People who have DSDs are not transgender. I’ve learned of some who consider themselves non-binary because they are, in some way, not fully female or fully male. If ever there was a situation when the term non-binary fits, it is with these individuals. But usually, they identify with one sex or the other and only disclose their status to family or close friends – because we “normies” have historically been rather cruel to anyone who’s different. Perhaps it’s time to get over that bad habit. 

Back to the EO: Sections 2 (f) and 2(g) wade into the morass of gender ideology and gender identity. Remember when Ketanji Jackson Brown was asked during a congressional hearing, “What is a woman?” and she said she couldn’t answer because she was not a biologist? Yes, well, I suspect that moment is what brought about this EO. Trump is enabling all of us with lived experience as humans to answer that question without having to get a degree in biology. “Adult human female” or “adult human male” should suffice to answer what is a woman or what is a man. 

Trump addresses the problem created by laws allowing self-identification, i.e. a provision that any person can simply declare that they are now the opposite sex of what they have been since birth. Henceforth, you and I and the state and all institutions must accept this as fact. Honestly, this is one of my frustrations with the Democrats: why couldn’t they grasp the threat that this policy poses to women? Men have taken advantage of women in many ways over many, many years. Why wouldn’t they see this law as an easy way to worm their way into women’s spaces? Yes, I know, “Not All Men!” But, seriously, “Yes Some Men!” 

Do you want to know how many male persons have transitioned to female after being incarcerated? Ha ha. You can’t find out because there are no records of numbers of prisoners identifying as the opposite sex. There are simply men and women. Once a person claims to be the opposite sex, that’s how they are counted. Are there two of them in federal prisons? Are there a thousand of them? Your guess is as good as mine. It’s not polite to identify a person as a trans man or trans woman. But I bet there are not even two who transition to male to get into a male prison.

Another Executive Order addresses radical ideologies in K-12 schools. I am not a fan of Donald Trump, but I support the elements of this EO. To varying degrees, schools have really gone off the deep end in content about race and gender that is presented to kids. I believe kids should learn the good and the bad of American history as is appropriate for their age. And the oppressor/oppressed meme needs to stay out of the classroom. Kids do not need to be putting themselves and their classmates into those categories. Just my humble opinion. Furthermore, schools should support all kids who are struggling, but there’s no need to tell little kids that they might have been born in the wrong body. I surely didn’t like my body as I hit my teen years, but I wasn’t alone. Tough it out, kids. 

Yet another EO, titled “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation.” Yikes. Yes, although I would not have phrased it this way, I generally support this order, too. But, as with all the various state laws that either promote or prohibit what is euphemistically termed “gender affirming care” for people under 18 (or 19, in the case of the EO), I really, truly wish the medical community had assumed responsibility for sorting out what’s appropriate for kids and what isn’t. Too many kids have followed the “gender affirming” path with too little counseling to sort out other issues that might be affecting them. 

In this EO, Trump claims that “countless children soon regret that they have been mutilated…” Sadly, we don’t really know how many people of any age regret transitioning. We have so little data because an unhappy patient may simply not return to their doctor to discuss their concerns. Clinics generally do not follow their patients to know how they are adjusting over time. Twenty years ago, there might have been very few desisters (those who don’t follow through with transition) or detransitioners (those who have transitioned, then changed their minds). But today, as transitioning has become much more common, and as detransitioners have been willing to share their stories publicly, we know that some number of people who pursue transition do regret the choice. Rather than assume that this number is near zero, we would do well to do more follow-up and get some real numbers and a better understanding of who’s happy and who isn’t. 

The issues addressed in this bunch of Executive Orders generally fall under the umbrella of “wokeness.” I’m just sad that Democrats could not manage to tame the beast of wokeness before the 2024 election. I actually believe that there may have been enough voters put off by these issues to change the election results. Dems don’t want to believe it, but the price of eggs and immigration were not the only concerns of voters last fall. I personally know many people who have been committed Democrats but now feel politically homeless, as I do, in large part because of the woke agenda. 

All of these orders will be challenged in court, so we shall see what is left standing in the end. I’m sorry for trans people who feel brutally attacked, but I can tell you for certain that trans activists pushed their agenda too hard, e.g. by insisting that we all buy into the assertion that “trans women are women” when, in fact they are simply trans women. I willingly refer to trans women who make an effort to appear female as “she.” But I, along with many trans women, don’t buy that they have actually changed their sex.

It shouldn’t have come to this, but here we are my friends.