A bill defining male and female based on biological sex is headed to Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) for final approval after the Texas Senate passed the legislation early Wednesday morning.
The state Senate passed House Bill 229, dubbed the Women’s Bill of Rights, on a 20-11 party-line vote after the House passed the bill earlier this month on an 87-56 vote. HB 229 was authored by Republican state Rep. Ellen Troxclair and carried by GOP state Sen. Mayes Middleton, who has argued the bill was necessary to ensure Texas is “grounded in biological reality.” HB 229 seeks to protect women’s right to equal opportunity and female spaces by enshrining a clear definition of male and female into state statute.
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“We’re a state that believes in truth, and we’re a state that honors the hard-won achievements of women, the women who fought for the right to vote, to compete in sports and to be safe in public spaces, to be treated equally under the law,” Troxclair said on the House floor. “But if we can no longer define what a woman is, we cannot defend what women have won. We cannot protect what we cannot define.”
The bill requires Texas to adhere to a biological definition of men and women. Once signed into law, people will be defined in state records by their biological sex, which is determined before birth, rather than the gender they identify as, meaning birth certificates and driver’s licenses must reflect their sex, not their preferred identity.
HB 229 now heads to the governor’s desk for his signature. Abbott is widely expected to sign the bill into law.
Conservative groups, such as Texas Values Action, hailed the bill’s passage in the Senate as a victory for “truth and common sense.”
The legislation will safeguard “the privacy, safety, and dignity of women and girls by clearly defining biological sex in state law,” the organization said.
Critics, however, argued that HB 229 is not inclusive.
“This bill is rooted in ignorance,” Democratic state Rep. Jessica Gonzalez said during the floor debate. “It’s abhorrent to abuse the power of this legislature to target Texans who dare to defy your counterfeit standards of gender.”
LGBT groups also portrayed the bill as an attack on people who don’t identify with their biological sex.
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“HB 229 is part of a broader crusade to replace freedom with fear,” the Texas Freedom Network said in a recent statement. “It invites surveillance of our bodies, our identities, and our most private medical decisions. That should scare everyone, not just the communities being directly targeted. Texans believe in dignity. In respect. In the freedom to live fully and truthfully. This bill is a cruel distraction from the real work our state needs.”
HB 229 defines “female” as “an individual whose biological reproductive system is developed to produce ova.” A “male” is categorized as “an individual whose biological reproductive system is developed to fertilize the ova of a female.” The bill, which notes that “separate is not inherently unequal” and that males are “on average, bigger, stronger, and faster, than females,” would codify the terms “male” and “female” and require government agencies to abide by these definitions in sex-based data collection, per the Texas Observer.