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Trump’s anti-transgender order defines ‘male’ and ‘female’

A transgender pride flag is waved during the People's March and rally to the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 18.
Nathan Morris / NurPhoto via Getty Images
A transgender pride flag is waved during the People's March and rally to the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 18.

One of the last executive actions President Trump signed in the Oval Office on Monday is titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.”

Among many other things, the extensive order defines “male” and “female” by the size of reproductive cells. From the text:

“Female” means a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the large reproductive cell.

“Male” means a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the small reproductive cell.

The order goes on to direct agencies throughout government to stop offering “gender identity” as a choice on government forms.

“Agencies shall take all necessary steps, as permitted by law, to end the Federal funding of gender ideology.”

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Diane Webber is a supervising editor on NPR's Science Desk, specializing in health policy. She edits stories on reproductive health, mental health, Medicare, Medicaid, health insurance and caregiving, among other topics.

Prior to joining NPR in 2022, Webber spent 11 years as an editor at KFF Health News, a nonprofit health policy newsroom where she led a team of reporters covering implementation of the Affordable Care Act in partnership with NPR and member stations. She also edited the Bill of the Month series, another collaboration between NPR and KFF Health News, that sparked federal legislation known as the No Surprises Act in 2020.

Earlier in her career, Webber was the founding editor of Politico Pro Health Care, and an executive editor of classroom magazines at Scholastic. She wrote five nonfiction science and health books for middle schoolers, published by Scholastic.

Webber got her start in journalism at community newspapers in Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan. She also did a short stint on the New York Post's copy desk.

Webber grew up in Fayetteville, North Carolina, in a military family. She graduated from Barnard College, where she majored in philosophy and minored in dance. She is married to journalist Glenn Thrush, and they have two sons and a Jack Russell terrier.

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