By defining sex, some states are denying transgender people of legal recognition

TOPEKA, Kan. — Mack Allen, an 18-year-old high school student from Kansas, prepares for sideways glances, questioning looks and snide comments when he has to surrender his driver’s license, which still identifies him as female.

They come from a police officer who responded to a car accident. They come from an emergency room worker who loudly uses the wrong name and pronouns. They come from the people in the waiting room who overheard.

“It just feels gross because I’ve worked so hard to get where I am in my transition, and I obviously don’t look like a woman or sound like a woman,” said Allen, who took testosterone for two years.

Kansas passed a law last year that ended legal recognition of transgender identities. The measure says there are only two genders, male and female, based on a person’s “biological reproductive system” at birth.

This law and others introduced across the country this year — often labeled as women’s rights bills — are part of an effort by conservatives who say states have a legitimate interest in banning transgender people from competing on sports teams or to use bathrooms that are aligned. with their gender identity.

Critics argue that the proposals to legally define sex as binary essentially erase the existence of transgender and non-binary people by making it as difficult as possible for them to update documents, use facilities and generally act authentically to participate in public life in a manner.

They also create uncertainty for the many intersex people – those born with physical characteristics that do not fit typical definitions of male or female – with the measures unclear on how people would prove they are exempt.

Some of the measures would remove the word gender, which refers to social identity and self-identity, from the state code and replace it with sex, which refers to biological characteristics, merging the two terms. Others make gender a synonym for sex. Medical experts say the efforts rely on an outdated idea of ​​gender, defining it as binary rather than a spectrum.

‘You pass a law because there is a problem. The medical community does not view people with different gender identities or being born with an intersex condition as a problem for society,” says Dr. Jack Drescher, a clinical professor of psychiatry at Columbia University, who edited the US newspaper’s gender dysphoria section. The Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic Manual: “The medical community can only take a step back and say, what exactly are you trying to protect with this law?”

Measures have been proposed in at least 13 states this year — Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming — and advocates expect that number to increase. The bills follow a historic push for restrictions on transgender people, especially young people, by Republican lawmakers last year. At least 23 states have banned gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors, and some states are now shifting their focus to efforts to restrict that care for adults as well. Others have moved on from toilet and exercise restrictions.

Many political observers say the Republican focus on transgender people is an attempt to rally a voting base with a “wedge issue” to replace abortion rights, which has largely been favored by the public, particularly in Kansas. The efforts also concern transgender people and their allies. they stigmatize and threaten a community already at high risk for stress, depression and suicidal behavior.

With the latest bills defining male and female, it’s clear that “the intent is to make it as difficult as possible for transgender people to operate within a state,” said Sarah Warbelow, legal vice president of the Human Rights Campaign , a major LGBTQ+ organization. rights group.

“It’s an attempt to deny the existence of transgender people,” she said.

A similar proposal in Iowa, introduced by Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds, sparked protests at the Capitol. The bill was introduced shortly after the failure of a lawmaker’s attempt to remove gender identity from the state’s civil rights law. It would narrowly define male and female and require a transgender person’s gender assigned at birth to be listed on their birth certificate alongside their gender identity.

“Women and men are not identical; they possess unique biological differences,” Reynolds said after introducing the measure. “That’s not controversial, it’s common sense.”

The sponsor of a similar bill passed by the West Virginia House said the legislation is needed to allow restrictions on who can use single-sex restrooms, locker rooms and locker rooms.

“At no point are we unable to protect gender spaces,” Del said. Kathie Hess Crouse, the measure’s sponsor. “If we don’t have a definition, we can’t protect them.”

Jocelyn Krueger of Grinnell, Iowa, joined protesters at the statehouse days after testifying to lawmakers in opposition to the failed effort to remove gender identity from civil rights law.

Krueger said she is concerned about the potential impact of the bill, as a person’s identity documents “unlock basic participation in everyday life.”

She compared it to how she was temporarily unable to get money from her bank account when she was updating her documents. Krueger worries that Iowa’s bill could pose similar challenges for trans residents, but in the longer term.

“If you don’t have access to documentation, or to things that bother you in some way, or where your documentation doesn’t match, you’re putting yourself at risk for all those day-to-day interactions where people are looking at your documentation,” Krueger said.

The Williams Institute, a think tank at UCLA Law, estimates that there are 1.3 million transgender adults in the US. But intersex people are believed to represent 1.7% of people, which would translate to more than 5 million in the US alone.

In Alabama, lawmakers added language to legislation defining men and women that sex can be classified as unknown in state records “when sex cannot be medically determined for developmental or other reasons.”

West Virginia’s proposal specifically states that someone who is intersex “shall not be considered a third gender.” But the measure says people with a “medically verifiable” diagnosis should be accommodated.

Before this year, Kansas and Montana, North Dakota and Tennessee had passed laws defining male and female in state code. Oklahoma – where advocates say a law restricting restroom access helped create a climate that led to the bullying of nonbinary teen Nex Benedict, who died after a fight in a girls’ school bathroom – already has an executive order measure in place, as does Nebraska.

Before Tennessee’s law went into effect, advocates organized events to help people change their names and gender identity on government documents.

“There is a high potential for damage that could explode at any moment,” said Dahron Johnson of the Tennessee Equality Project.

In South Carolina, changes to the state constitution have been proposed to precisely define male and female. But the measures face an uphill battle to clear the Legislature before the April 10 deadline for a vote this fall.

Opponents say attempts to codify sex are likely to face legal challenges, just as other restrictions, such as child health services, have done.

“We have already lost this case,” said Idaho Rep. Ilana Rubel, a Democrat who voted against a definition bill passed by the state’s Republican-led House and predicted the state would be sued. “This is really just an unfortunate gesture that makes people in our community feel unwanted and unloved by their government.”

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DeMillo reported from Little Rock, Arkansas. Associated Press journalists Nick Ingram, in Leavenworth, Kansas, contributed to this report; Hannah Fingerhut in Des Moines, Iowa; Rebecca Boone in Boise, Idaho; Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City; and James Pollard in Columbia, South Carolina.