Texas will require state documents to reflect sex assigned at birth

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In the middle of the night, the Texas Senate approved a bill strictly defining man and woman based on reproductive organs on a 20-11 party line vote. The bill has already passed the House and will go now to the governor’s desk.

House Bill 229 says a woman is an individual whose biological reproductive system is developed to produce ova, while a man is someone whose reproductive system is developed to fertilize the ova. The bill would require that this definition be used across state statute, with potentially wide-ranging consequences for trans and intersex people who would see their gender identity reverted back to the sex they were assigned at birth in state records.

The bill, called the “Women’s Bill of Rights” was authored by Rep. Ellen Troxclair and carried by Sen. Mayes Middleton. Supporters of the bill say it’s about preserving single-sex spaces, like bathrooms, locker rooms and prisons, and opportunities, like athletic competitions, which they feel have been threatened by men masquerading as trans women.

Middleton said on the floor of the Senate on Wednesday that this was common sense legislation that aligned with state and federal executive orders declaring there are only two sexes: male and female.

“Your birth sex is your birth sex, period,” Middleton said.

Democrats argued against this claim, echoing concerns from trans people and their allies who say it’s an oversimplification of sex, gender and the spectrum of human experiences. San Antonio Sen. José Menéndez said it was a “form of state-sponsored discrimination.”

“If a law forces non-binary Texans, who are real people, into categories that don't reflect their lived experiences or identities … that would actually become discrimination in practice,” he said.

Many trans people have gotten court orders allowing them to change the sex listed on their birth certificate, driver’s licenses, school records and more, and fear that those would be invalidated or reversed by this law.

Heather Clark, an Austin woman whose wife is transgender, testified to a Senate committee earlier this month about the impact of her wife’s documents being reverted to a male gender marker.

“Anytime that she is required to show her driver's license, she could be compelled to explain why her appearance doesn't align with her documentation,” Clark said, adding that could happen anytime she flew, took money from the bank, applied for a job or voted. “That creates ample daily opportunities for discrimination, and that would make living in Texas untenable.”

The bill does not create a criminal or civil penalty, but rather defines the terms wherever they are used in state law. The ripple effects may take time to sort out as state officials reverse engineer where and how these definitions must be applied.

As Menéndez and Houston Sen. Molly Cook pressed Middleton on why this bill was necessary and what its implications would be, Middleton dismissed the legislation as merely a “definitions bill,” noting that it has no criminal or civil penalties attached. But he also acknowledged the bill’s potentially wide-ranging reach

“We have male and female, woman and man throughout our state code. It's in there hundreds of times,” he said. “We never thought we needed to define that until recently.”

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