Senate Bill Would Fully Erase Transgender Identity in U.S.
Senator Roger Marshall's bill would legally prohibit recognition of a person's gender that doesn't align with their assigned sex at birth.
U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kansas) has introduced a bill that would erase transgender identity from the law.
The “Defining Male and Female Act of 2024” seeks to enshrine gender-specific definitions of various words into law, including the terms “girl,” “boy,” “father,” “mother,” “female,” and “male.”
The bill defines sex as fixed at birth and binary, and defines gender, in certain contexts, as a synonym for sex, while expressly not including gender identity or gender expression.
Under the bill, “male” and “female” are defined as individuals who naturally have — or would have, but for a congenital anomaly — a reproductive system that produces, respectively, sperm or eggs for fertilization.
The bill states that “rare disorders of sexual development are not exceptions to the binary nature of sex,” and that “in no case is an individual’s sex determined by stipulation or self-identification.”
Marshall, an OB/GYN by trade, argues that due to recent “confusion” surrounding the definition of sex — which he defines as a “biological truth” — the bill is needed to codify those meanings permanently into law.
The bill also states that maintaining sex-segregated facilities or sports leagues based on physical differences between the sexes shall not be considered “unequal treatment under the law,” which appears to be an effort to protect against lawsuits brought by transgender advocates.
Marshall said in a news release that the bill would push back against the Biden administration’s attempt to “replace biological sex with dangerous radical gender ideology,” would ban transgender athletes from female sports, and would ensure that restrooms, locker and dorm rooms, prisons, and shelters for victims of sexual assault continue to be separated by sex.
“As a physician who has delivered over 5,000 babies, I can confidently say that politicizing children’s gender to use them as pawns in their radical woke agenda is not only wrong, it is extremely dangerous,” Marshall said in a statement. “I didn’t think we would need legislation to tell us that there are only two sexes: male and female, but here we are.”
Marshall’s bill is unlikely to pass in the remainder of the current congressional session, as Democrats currently control the U.S. Senate. But it likely signals that he will introduce it in the next session when Republicans control the chamber.
With unfettered Republican control over Congress and a Republican president eager to play to his party’s base, the bill could likely pass, effectively erasing transgender people from the law by classifying them based on their assigned sex at birth.
Marshall’s bill is supported by a host of right-wing, anti-LGBTQ activist groups, including Heritage Action, the Family Research Council, Concerned Women of America, and Alliance Defending Freedom. Many of those groups portray the act as needed to protect the safety and privacy of women and girls.
“There are only two sexes — male and female — and denying this basic scientific truth hurts women, children, and families,” Matt Sharp, senior counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, said in a statement. “It results in men taking away athletic opportunities from deserving female athletes, children being pushed toward dangerous gender transition drugs and surgeries, and schools lying to parents about a child experiencing discomfort with his or her sex.
“Our laws should reflect biological truth, not erase it … Our government ought to prioritize the well-being of our women, children, and families, not extreme ideology that is out of touch with reality — and common sense.”
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