Alabama ‘What is a Woman Act’ attempts to define who is recognized as female, male

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – Alabama lawmakers on Wednesday advanced legislation that would define who is recognized as female and male under state law.

The House Health Committee voted along party lines to approve the “Woman’s Act” and send the legislation to the entire House of Representatives. The bill is similar to measures introduced in several GOP-controlled states and would base definitions on a person’s reproductive systems.

Republican Rep. Susan Dubose, the bill’s sponsor, argued that the definitions are needed to protect “women-only spaces” such as dormitories. She said the words masculine and feminine appear frequently in the law without being defined.

“Activists have sought to redefine those words and separate sex from biology,” Dubose said when she introduced the bill last week.

The bill defines a woman and a woman as an “individual whose biological reproductive system is designed to produce eggs” and a man and a man as an “individual whose biological reproductive system is designed to fertilize the eggs of a female “. The bill states that it is important to “distinguish between the sexes with respect to athletics, prisons or other detention facilities, shelters for victims of domestic violence, support centers for victims of rape, locker rooms, toilets” and other areas.

The bill drew strong opposition at a public hearing last week in which several transgender women called the bill an attack on their aid.

Carmarion D. Anderson-Harvey, State of Alabama director, Human Rights Campaign, on Wednesday called the bill the “LGBTQ+ Erasure Act” that “seeks to remove dozens of legal protections and rights for Alabamians LGBTQ+”.

“LGBTQ+ people have spent decades fighting to be equal members of society, but this bill is a slap in the face to all the progress we’ve made,” said Anderson-Harvey, who is also a trans woman. .