Fox News host: “No one suspects” Trump's executive order targeting trans troops is “about intersex, that really rare phenomenon. This is about transgender military members”

There are as many as three times more intersex people than trans people in the US

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Written by Media Matters Staff

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While covering a hearing over the Trump administration’s executive order targeting transgender troops, Fox News host Will Cain argued that U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes' line of questioning — in which she noted that the order ignored the existence of intersex people — was “ignorant." 

According to the Center for American Progress, up to an estimated 1.7% of the population in the U.S. has an intersex trait and 0.5% of people have “clinically identifiable sexual or reproductive variations.” According to the Williams Institute, 0.6% of those 13 and older and 0.5% of all adults in the U.S. identify as transgender. 

On his first day in office, President Donald Trump repealed a Biden-era executive order that allowed transgender Americans to serve in the military. One week later, the president signed an executive order asserting:   

“Consistent with the military mission and longstanding DoD policy, expressing a false ‘gender identity' divergent from an individual’s sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service. Beyond the hormonal and surgical medical interventions involved, adoption of a gender identity inconsistent with an individual’s sex conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life. A man’s assertion that he is a woman, and his requirement that others honor this falsehood, is not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member." 

Following the order, six transgender active-duty service members and two former service members seeking to reenlist brought a case against the Trump administration. While hearing the case, Reyes argued that the premise of the order — that there are only two sexes, male and female — ignored the existence of intersex people. 

JUDGE ANA REYES (U.S. DISTRICT COURT): This executive order is premised on an assertion that’s not biologically correct. There are anywhere near 30 intersex examples. Anyone who doesn’t have XX or XY chromosomes is not just male or female, they’re intersex.  

While covering this exchange, Cain argued that Reyes' line of questioning was “ignorant.” 

WILL CAIN (HOST): Some really fascinating exchanges here — tense exchanges. I think one could say ignorant exchanges that you’re hearing from this judge. No one suspects that these EOs are about intersex, that really rare phenomenon. This is about transgender military members.

From the February 19, 2025, edition of Fox News' The Will Cain Show