The proposed legislation in Indiana aims to replace the word “gender” with “biological sex” throughout the state’s legal code.
If a bill sponsored by Democratic lawmakers in the Indiana State House of Representatives were to pass, it could have significant implications for the social recognition of transgender individuals.
The bill, co-sponsored by three Republican lawmakers and authored by Rep. Chris Judy (R), seeks to prohibit the use of the term “gender” in the state’s legal code. Instead, it mandates the use of “biological sex,” which is explicitly defined in the bill as the “genetic identity of an individual as either male or female.”
The bill also provides strict definitions of what constitutes a male or female, with exceptions only for “a medically verifiable genetic condition of sexual differentiation.” This legislation appears to be targeted at transgender and nonbinary individuals in the state.
The proposed changes would impact various aspects of state regulations, including “the drafting of all Indiana statutes concerning sex discrimination and benefits or service” provided or recognized by the state. This could affect discrimination laws and potentially roll back gender-based protections for transgender employees in the state’s civil service.
In addition to redefining gender in state law, the bill also revises the state’s existing definition of marriage, possibly with the intention of preparing for a challenge to the Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, which established marriage equality nationwide.
Indiana still has anti-marriage equality legislation on the books, which would become enforceable again if Obergefell were overturned. While it could potentially allow marriages between one or both transgender individuals to continue within its parameters (as it prohibits unions between individuals of the same gender), the new bill emphasizes biological sex over gender in the context of marriage.
Similar policies are emerging in other parts of the United States. Recently, Republicans in Florida introduced a bill aimed at preventing transgender individuals from obtaining legal recognition. One provision in the Florida bill requires driver’s licenses to indicate an individual’s biological sex rather than their gender.
Allison Chapman, an advocate for transgender rights and an LGBTQ policy monitor, expressed concerns about the Indiana bill. She noted that six states made similar changes to their legal codes last year, redefining sex in ways that effectively deny legal recognition to transgender individuals. While some legal challenges have been filed against these changes, no decisions have been reached yet.
Chapman believes that Indiana’s bill seeks to eliminate all constitutional recognition of transgender individuals by redefining sex and gender as one’s assigned identity at birth across all areas of state law. She also mentioned similarities between the Indiana bill and legislation passed in Hungary in 2023 and Russia in 2020, highlighting a concerning trend.
