Indiana Senate Bill would legally define trans people as non-existent
This bill has been called "the single most egregious" piece of anti-trans legislation in Indiana, but it can still be stopped.
The bill would provide the state a full legal framework for total exclusion of trans people.
Senate Bill 182 (SB 182), authored by Republican Senator Liz Brown, set to be debated this Wednesday, is designed to define sex and gender as the same thing in Indiana legal code, and also defines “sex” as unchangeable from birth.
It uses the same style of language as most anti-trans bills have this year, defining biological sex exclusively based on assumed reproductive capacity and role in fertilization.
The bill legally defines sex in humans as if it “means an individual who naturally has, had, will have, or would have, but for a congenital anomaly, an intentional disruption, or an 4 unintentional disruption, the reproductive system that at some point produces, transports, and utilizes”, with “sperm” associated in the proposed legal definition for “male” and “eggs” for the proposed legal definition for “female”.
However, this legislation doesn’t just share notes from the other legislative assaults on trans people, it expands upon them.
Further down in the bill text, it adds a definition that sex and gender are not only 1:1 and a binary, but that sex, “refers to the two (2) sexes, female and male, in the human species with the organization of the anatomy, hormones, and the gametes oriented toward fertilization without regard to the individual's psychological, behavioral, social, chosen, or subjective experience of gender.”
Its impacts would include targeting trans women to be put into men’s prisons, and preventing any trans people from amending gender markers on birth certificates.
According to Lilliana Young, a candidate for Indiana State House, the broad result would be “that trans and intersex people are entirely removed from any form of legal recognition”.
Young summarized the bill as “state sanctioned discrimination”.
On Jan. 21st, at 9 am Eastern Standard Time, the second committee hearing for this bill will take place. Young believes that if it passes through committee, the chances of it not being passed into law are essentially nil.
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In other words, if the committee passes it through to the Senate floor as a result of Wednesday’s committee hearing, odds are nearly-certain that it becomes Indiana law.
This is due to the Republican supermajority in both chambers of the Indiana legislature.
There is still an opportunity to stop the bill in committee, and Young says that the community needs to “draw out an overwhelming response against the bill”.
This is the first, and likely final, opportunity to kill SB 182, according to Young.
She stated, “This is the single most egregious anti-trans legislation that the state could pass. It’s worse than bathroom bills, sports bans, or even gender affirming care for minor’s bans. This is legislation that would provide the state a full legal framework to deny our practical existence”.
Young further exhorted, “Cis allies, trans people, if you have work that day, call in sick or swap the shift. This bill must be killed."
There is no online or digital way to give public comment. For anyone who wants to comment, the process requires them to show up at the General Assembly’s committee meeting at the Indiana Statehouse. Speakers will be limited to 2-3 minutes each, as prepared and concise remarks are expected.
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