Regulations that would establish legal explanations for “man” and “woman” based on their reproductive systems are being considered in a number of states.
The trans group, which has been the target of conservative-backed regulations across the country, will be impacted by this contentious proposed legislation, known by Republican legislators as the “Children’s Bill of Rights,” now present in West Virginia, Iowa, Georgia, and various states.
Critics contend that discrimination and false identification methods may result from governments no longer legally recognizing transgender people as a result of the restrictive definitions.
By defining gender in terms that are specific to biology, the bills’ opponents contend that they are meant to advance safety, privacy, and the accuracy of public information.
Similar bills are still the subject of contentious debate in committee hearings, and a large number of critics have come out in opposition.
After voicing opposition to a proposed “Children’s Bill of Rights” on February 8, 2024, at the West Virginia Capitol in Charleston, W. Va., Max Varney, right, listens to other speakers.
AP John Raby/FILE
What exactly do the bills say?
According to bills passed in West Virginia, Georgia, and Iowa, women and men are to be defined according to whether they currently possess “a biological system that at some point produces, transports, or uses” eggs or sperm for reproduction, respectively.
According to the bills, exceptions can be made for people who are transgender and suffer from a genetic or developmental disorder that affects the development of their sexes, as well as for those who have experienced “historical accidents” that impair their ability to have such reproductive systems.
The characteristics of a man, woman, child, son, father, mother, men, and female may all depend on one’s sex and reproductive system rather than their gender expression and identity.
Gender and sex are defined separately by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
According to the organization, gender refers to “the social roles, behaviors, actions, and attributes expected of individuals based on their sex.”
Sex is the term used to describe a person’s “biological standing as male, female, or something else.” According to the CDC, sex is assigned at birth and linked to physical characteristics like genes and anatomy.
According to West Virginian law, there are only two sexes, either male or female, and transgender individuals are not considered to be of a third sex.
In a speech on her state’s laws, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds asserts that “women and men are not similar; they possess unique natural differences.”
1.7% of the population, or intersex individuals, are said to be born “with genetic characteristics that differ from what is typically thought of as solely male or female.” This includes chromosomes or sexual organs that are unclear or unusual.
Huge portions of the legislative code may be affected by these new definitions.
These bills seek to limit transgender people’s access to single-sex services like locker rooms, rape crisis facilities, jails, domestic violence homes, and restrooms as well as their ability to change their gender markers on IDs.
The bill in Georgia eliminates “physical arrangement and identity” from the list of potential driving forces behind a love violence.
Any state laws, legislation, or software that forbids discrimination based on sex may be interpreted as prohibiting cruel treatment of females or males in relation to similarly situated members of the same sex, according to Iowa’s proposed bill.
Similar laws have been enacted in at least four states: Kansas, North Dakota, Tennessee, and Montana.
How might this affect trans people?
According to Sasha Buchert, chairman of the Non-Binary and Transgender Rights Project at Lambda Legal, some legal and LGBTQ activists contend that these bills seek to “erase transgender people from public life.”
“To be able to walk through the [world], having constitutional recognition is crucial,” according to Buchert. “Consider how frequently you will need to provide your ID.”
According to Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen, the executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, a social justice advocacy organization, gender markers that don’t match someone’s gender identity may cause confusion, harassment, and discrimination.
Heng-Lehtinen is a trans man who carries himself in every aspect of his life. However, it might be challenging to identify or locate him if his information identified him as a woman.
According to Heng-Lehtinen, reliability is important. “Every day, we have to keep track of how people live and what sex they identify with.” People are subjected to widespread harassment and discrimination when that becomes inflexible or reinforced and people are unable to revise those records or the gender marker.
Proponents claim that if a person’s sex and gender marker don’t match, ordinary activities, like applying for new apartments, loans, or using their ID at bars, could result in discrimination.
Advocates have also voiced concerns about the bill’s attempt to define sex in such a limited way throughout the parliamentary script.
According to the Supreme Court’s ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County from 2020, sexual orientation and gender identity were also covered
by “sex-based” discrimination protections. Advocates worry that by just defining sex, the LGBTQ community may be left out of protections based on people’s identities.
These worries include Georgia’s decision to exclude gender and sexual preference from its hate crime laws, especially given the rising frequency of physical assaults and threats against the LGBTQ community.
According to Heng-Lehtinen, “there is a correlation between the policy attacks and the actual attacks, so it is crucial that our hate crime laws address this in an important way.”
Regarding limitations on single-sex facilities, the bills don’t specify how they will be enforced. Law enforcement officials have reportedly been perplexed by transgender restroom bans because they lack instructions on how to implement them.
Could this have an effect on non-transgender individuals?
According to Buchert, laws aimed at policing gender and sex don’t just affect the transgender community. He cites a recent incident in which a Utah school board member falsely and openly implied that the student’s appearance was what caused her to be so.
Following the committee member’s now-deleted post, the young lady experienced online bullying and harassment. Eventually, the school official apologized.
According to Buchert, “Stringent attempts to define these terms in this way are this increased scrutiny that ultimately harms everyone, but especially women.” “Everyone is really negatively impacted by these kinds of plans and this kind of transgender despair.”
At a public hearing on February 8, 2024, at the state Senate in Charleston, W. Va., Mollie Kennedy, community outreach director for the American Civil Liberties Union’s West Virginia book, expresses her opposition to the proposed “Women’s Bill of Rights.”
AP John Raby/FILE
The laws may have an impact on how women are perceived in bias law, according to Shannon Minter, the National Center for Lesbian Rights’ legal director.
According to Minter, “they actually define women based on their sexual anatomy and claim that is the only description of sex that can be used in any condition law.” “Over the past few years, the majority of the ground-breaking decisions that have shielded women from gender discrimination and sexual abuse have been directly influenced by a much broader knowledge of sex that goes beyond just your reproductive anatomy.”
In favor of the bill
According to Independent Women’s Voice, a group that advocates for the “Women’s Bill of Rights,” allowing gender and sexual orientation to be included in the definition of “sex” “has serious negative consequences for our ability to create equal opportunities for women, foster safety, protect privacy, and conduct research and collect accurate data.”
Supporters contend that there must be a clear distinction between sex and gender bias because using the terms interchangeably undermines the importance of genetic differences, according to them.
According to the group, the so-called “Bill of Rights” merely “codifies recent court precedent regarding single sex spaces” and “clarifies the meaning of current laws based on sexual orientation.”
