Health Care

Latest front in culture wars: Defining sex

States are advancing measures specifying what ‘male’ and ‘female’ mean.
Kansas House health committee Chair Brenda Landwehr (R) confers with Majority Leader Chris Croft (R) during a vote on overriding Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s (D) veto of a transgender bathroom bill, Thursday, April 27, 2023, at the Statehouse in Topeka, Kan. (AP Photo/John Hanna)

State lawmakers seeking to restrict the rights of transgender people want to create definitions of sex under state law, in a growing effort to separate what supporters say is a binary biological option distinct from a more fluid concept of gender.

A Kansas measure defining “male” and “female” based on a person’s biological reproductive system became law this week after lawmakers overrode Gov. Laura Kelly’s (D) veto. In Montana, Gov. Greg Gianforte (R) is likely to sign a similar bill approved by the Republican-dominated legislature last week.

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