MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) 鈥� Alabama lawmakers are advancing legislation that would strictly define who is considered female and male based on their reproductive systems. Opponents said the move could erode the rights of transgender and intersex people in the state.
鈥淭here are only two sexes, and every individual is either male or female,鈥� declares
It defines sex based on reproductive anatomy and says schools and local governments can establish single-sex spaces, such as bathrooms, based on those definitions. A House committee plans to take up similar legislation Wednesday.
The bills are part of a wave of legislation in Republican states that seek to regulate which bathrooms transgender people use, which school sports teams they can play on, and to prohibit gender-affirming medical care, such as puberty blockers and hormone therapy, particularly for minors.
鈥淚 am here today to stand for women鈥檚 rights,鈥� said Republican Sen. April Weaver, the sponsor of the bill. She said the definitions will guide courts in interpreting existing laws and 鈥渃odifies the time-honored definitions of male, female, woman, man, boy, girl, mother, father, and sex."
The bill states that a female is someone who, barring accident or anomaly, has a 鈥渞eproductive system that at some point produces ova鈥� and male as someone who, barring accident or anomaly, has a "reproductive system that at some point produces sperm.鈥� The bill requires any state-supported entity collecting information related to sex to 鈥渋dentify each individual as either male or female at birth.鈥�
During a public hearing, opponents said the legislation is part of ongoing attacks on the rights of transgender people to simply go about their daily lives.
鈥淚鈥檓 here to say that I鈥檓 literally just a woman. I鈥檓 also transgender. People like me have always existed... and it鈥檚 OK that we exist,鈥� Allison Montgomery told the County and Municipal Government Committee.
Montgomery said what proponents are seeking would mean that men who have 鈥渢aken testosterone for years and have developed full beards鈥� would be required to use women鈥檚 restrooms because their bodies once produced ova.
It is not clear how the proposal would impact , or born with a combination of male and female biological traits. The committee added language that sex can be designated as unknown on state records 鈥渨hen sex cannot be medically determined for developmental or other reasons.鈥�
The legislation is at odds with decades of medical research showing gender is a spectrum, , and that sexual anatomy doesn't always agree with the chromosomes and genes that cause most people to develop and identify as male or female.
The measure would create a vague exemption for people with intersex conditions 鈥� saying that individuals with congenital or medically verifiable differences in sex development 鈥渕ust be accommodated鈥� in accordance with federal law 鈥� while declaring that such people 鈥渁re not a third sex.鈥�
Research indicates that , born with physical traits that don鈥檛 match typical definitions of male and female, is even bigger than that of transgender people.
A proponent of the bill, Becky Gerritson, executive director of the Eagle Forum of Alabama, said the definitions would give guidance to the courts.
鈥淭his bill will help preserve those single-sex spaces which ensure privacy, safety, equal opportunity,鈥� Gerritson said.
Democratic senators Linda Coleman-Madison from Birmingham and Merika Coleman from Pleasant Grove questioned the need for the bill.
鈥淭his is just so heartbreaking. We spend all of this time about trying to keep people down who are not like us. It鈥檚 sad,鈥� Coleman-Madison said.
Kim Chandler, The Associated Press
