HHS drops 'gender ideology,' affirms there are only 2 sexes
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has announced it will eliminate "gender ideology" from its policies, declaring that there are two sexes.
In an announcement Wednesday, the department stated that it is "restoring the concept of biological truth in federal government" and rejecting transgender ideology.
HHS will officially define "sex" in its policies as being someone's "immutable biological classification as either male or female." This contrasts with the definition of "sex" under the Biden administration, which was broadened by including sexual orientation and gender identity.
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Additionally, the agency will define "female" as "a person of the sex characterized by a reproductive system with the biological function of producing eggs" and "male" as "a person of the sex characterized by a reproductive system with the biological function of producing sperm."
HHS' Office on Women's Health launched a webpage to advance guidance on sex-based definitions and provide other resources "on efforts to protect women and children."
"There are only two sexes, female and male, because there are only two types of gametes," the website explains. "An individual human is either female or male based on whether the person is of the sex characterized by a reproductive system with the biological function of producing eggs (ova) or sperm."
"The sex of a human, female or male, is determined genetically at conception (fertilization), and is observable before birth. Having the biological function to produce eggs or sperm does not require that eggs or sperm are ever produced. Some females or males may not or may no longer produce eggs or sperm due to factors such as age, congenital disorders or other developmental conditions, injury, or medical conditions that cause infertility."
The site contends that a person's sex is "unchangeable and determined by objective biology."
"The use of hormones or surgical interventions do not change a person's sex because such actions do not change the type of gamete that the person's reproductive system has the biological function to produce," the website added.
In a statement, newly confirmed HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the Trump administration is "bringing back common sense and restoring biological truth to the federal government."
"The prior administration's policy of trying to engineer gender ideology into every aspect of public life is over," he said in a statement.
The move follows President Donald Trump's Executive Order 14168, also known as "Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government."
Issued last month, the order defined the word "sex" as "an individual's immutable biological classification as either male or female," adding that it was "not a synonym for and does not include the concept of 'gender identity.'"
Additionally, EO 14168 told HHS to provide the public a "clear guidance expanding on the sex-based definitions set forth in this order" within 30 days of the order being issued.
LGBT activists and critics of the Trump administration's moves argue that the biological nature of sex is more complicated, pointing to the existence of "intersex" people who are born with both male and female anatomy.
Matthew Rose, a senior public policy advocate at the LGBT advocacy group the Human Rights Campaign, told The Washington Post that he considered the new orders "deliberately harmful."
"It's deeply concerning that, at a time when thousands of federal health employees are being abruptly laid off without explanation and multiple public health crises break out across the country, HHS is instead focusing its time and taxpayer dollars on anti-science, anti-health PR campaigns," said Rose.
In a section of the HHS Women's Health website titled "sex-based definitions," the HHS contends that "rare disorders of sexual development" don't equate to a "third sex because these disorders do not lead to the production of a third gamete."
"That is, the reproductive system of a person with such a disorder does not produce gametes other than eggs or sperm," the site states.
Mat Staver, founder of the Christian conservative legal organization Liberty Counsel, said in a statement Thursday that “[r]eality and sound science have long confirmed that life begins at conception and that biological human sex is immutable."
"This commonsense guidance allows a return to sound governance based on fact, not fiction," Staver said. "Radical gender ideology must be completely rooted out from government to fully protect the health, safety, and fairness of women and children.”
