The Texas Senate passed a bill defining biological sex.
Under House Bill 229, males and females “possess unique immutable biological differences that manifest prior to birth and increase as individuals age and experience puberty.”
These biological differences mean that “only females are able to get pregnant, give birth, and breastfeed children,” while males are “on average, bigger, stronger, and faster than females,” the bill says.
The bill clearly defines boy, father, female, girl, male, mother, and sex.
“House Bill 299 is a very simple and commonsense bill,” state Senator Mayes Middleton said. “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,” he explained. “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?”
“This bill is about defending opportunity, fairness, safety, such as the integrity of female-only spaces, as well as accurate services and statistics,” he added, further noting that the bill restores what was “universally accepted for millennia.”
The legislation ensures that “state government recognizes that sex is immutable, objective, and consequential, and these are not political constructs, they are scientific facts,” Middleton stated.
The bill is expected to be signed by Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R).
