Texas Legislature: Gender Defined at Birth

The bicameral Texas Legislature passed legislation requiring state documents to reflect sex assigned at birth.

During Wednesday's early hours, the state Senate voted 20-11, along party lines, to approve House Bill 299, which defines man and woman based on reproductive organs.

The bill, which passed the state House on May 12, will go to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott's desk for the executive's signature.

Called the "Women's Bill of Rights," the measure was authored by Texas Rep. Ellen Troxclair, from the upper midwestern portion of the state, and carried by state Sen. Mayes Middleton, from Galveston, The Texas Tribune reported.

"House Bill 299 is a very simple and commonsense bill," Middleton said on the Senate floor. "Across the country, we are witnessing the consequences of a radical ideology that seeks to erase the biological reality of sex, and this bill ensures that in Texas law, that there are only two sexes, male and female, and that no amount of political pressure can change that."

"House Bill 299 restores common sense and scientific clarity to law. It establishes biological sex, not an individual's self-proclamation, as the standard in Texas government definitions and data collection. Words matter. Definitions matter. If we cannot define 'woman,' how can we defend her rights?"

The bill does not create a criminal or civil penalty. It simply defines the terms man and woman wherever they are used in state law.

Democrats, trans people and their allies argued that the legislation is an oversimplification of sex, gender, and the spectrum of human experiences, the Tribune reported.

State Sen. José Menéndez, D-San Antonio, said the bill was a "form of state-sponsored discrimination."

"If a law forces nonbinary Texans, who are real people, into categories that don't reflect their lived experiences or identities … that would actually become discrimination in practice," Menéndez said.

Until now, many trans people in Texas have sought court orders to change the sex listed on their birth certificate, driver's licenses, school records and more.

Menéndez and state Sen. Molly Cook, D-Houston, pressed Middleton on why this bill was necessary.

"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."

Middleton is running for Texas attorney general, which is being vacated by Ken Paxton, who is challenging U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, for the GOP nomination next year.