The attack on gender diversity continues, this time with a fun bit of ageism thrown in!
One of Trump’s first actions this term was to sign an executive order declaring that there would only be two federally-recognized genders: male and female. This gesture has created huge problems for the many trans, nonbinary, and intersex Americans who now find themselves at the mercy of a governing body that refuses to acknowledge anything outside of an outdated binary definition of personhood.
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Just in case you weren’t terrified before
However, not content to throw gender diverse people under the bus, a new definition of womanhood on the Office of Women’s Health website manages to leave out an entirely new group of people: post-menopausal women.
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HHS campaign starting to go live, with video from swimmer Riley Gaines and other materials. womenshealth.gov/protecting-w…
— Dan Diamond (@ddiamond.bsky.social) February 19, 2025 at 10:49 AM
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NEW: HHS launches anti-transgender campaign featuring Riley Gaines. It seeks to ban gender affirming care and require the federal health agencies to eliminate recognition of trans people. womenshealth.gov/protecting-w…
— Alejandra Caraballo (@esqueer.net) February 19, 2025 at 11:59 AM
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Using professional transphobe Riley Gaines as its spokesperson, the new campaign seeks to double down on its erasure of anyone who falls outside the binary, framing it as a protective measure. There’s just one problem: under the site’s classification of gender being “defined by the biological function of producing eggs (ova) or sperm,” anyone who no longer produces eggs or sperm is suddenly disqualified from counting as a woman or a man.
This goes beyond what the right claims to be doing—”recognizing biological differences between sexes,” in Gaines’s own words—and slides nearly into yet another category of harassment, this time against anyone who happens to be older than, say, 50.
“…so post-menopausal people are a secret gender,” one poster wrote in response to the site’s definition. “Sweet, can’t wait to unlock the hidden level in the gender game around my late 40s.”
“Defending women by defining them as an egg factory,” another poster wrote. “Also, I love how according to this definition neither my mother nor my grandmother are women.”
As usual, anti-trans activists are getting hoist by their own petard. When you attempt to define gender solely through specific reproductive functions, you’re going to end up leaving a lot of people out of that definition, whether trans or cis.
One especially canny poster said it best: “If I was protecting women and girls, I’d be leading with the top causes of harm to women and girls: the men in their lives.”
Absolutely: starting with Trump himself.
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