Alabama’s bill to define the sexes passed the House 77 to 24 on Thursday and is now winding its way through the Senate. Two legislators abstained.
The bill, HB111, defines the terms “male,” “female,” “boy,” and “girl.” It states that the sexes are equal but not the same and that there are only two sexes.
The sponsor said the purpose of the bill is to protect women’s spaces, such as locker rooms and university dorms.
“In Alabama, we know what a woman is,” Rep. Susan DuBose, R-Hoover, told AL.com after her bill passed the House. She said the law will provide clarity for Alabama courts.
“(It) is an important step in increasing transparency in our state while protecting women’s rights, women’s spaces and preventing sex discrimination,” she said.
According to the legislation, a woman’s body is characterized by producing or being a body that would have produced ova, or female reproduction cells if not for some kind of anomaly or accident. A man’s body is similarly characterized by producing sperm.
The bill had already passed a Senate committee and was debated on Thursday on the House floor. After passing the House it now remains in the Senate.
Rep. Mary Moore, D-Jefferson County, questioned whether the bill protected people who were born intersex, with both male and female genitalia.
“How do you treat that?” she asked adding that the bill’s language about protections for intersex people was “not specific enough.”
Rep. DuBose stated that only four intersex people had been born in the state of Alabama in the past five years.
Rep. Moore responded that for families that find the situation traumatic, many take their children to private doctors for surgery and the birth of their intersex child is never recorded.
In 2023, Rep. DuBose sponsored a similar bill entitled “what is a woman.”
This year’s bill was drafted with the assistance of national organizations which have developed draft language for multiple states, including The Independent Women’s Forum, Women’s Independent Voice, Women’s Declaration International USA and Women’s Liberation Front.
At a public hearing on the bill in February, several people spoke about the impact it might have.
“This legislation does not make any sense to implement,” said Alison Montgomery, a transgender woman from District 2.
“It’ll force (trans) men whose bodies produces ova into women’s spaces. Some of these men have taken testosterone for years and have developed full beards. They do not belong in the women’s bathroom,” she said.
