Kansas has become the first state to pass legislation that defines gender based on a person’s biological sex at birth.
The legislation, known as S.B. 180 or the “Women’s Bill of Rights,” restricts men, no matter what gender they identify as, from using women’s bathrooms, locker rooms, and other intimate spaces.
It also separates inmates and restricts participation in sports by biological sex.
The bill passed on April 27, when the state legislature voted to override Kansas Governor Laura Kelly’s veto of the legislation.
Under the new law, a female is defined as “an individual whose biological reproductive system is developed to produce ova,” and a male is defined as “an individual whose biological reproductive system is developed to fertilize the ova of a female.”
It also defines gender words, requiring “woman” and “girl” to be used to refer to human females and “man” and “boy” to refer to human males. Additionally, “mother” is defined as a parent of the female sex, and “father” is a parent of the male sex.
The bill garnered support from both sides of the aisle, including one staunchly pro-choice women’s rights group, the Women’s Liberation Front, which celebrated the veto override.
“Victory!” wrote the Women’s Liberation Front (WOLF) on Twitter.
Opponents called the bill anti-trans and compared it to racial segregation.
The bill also faced criticism for not being inclusive of “intersex” people.
“Gender is not binary but is a spectrum of biological, mental, and emotional traits that exist along a continuum,” Beth Oller, a physician who testified against the bill, said. “Intersex people exist.”
Nationwide, there have been several reports of assaults on women by biological men who claim to identify as women.
Breaking Digest reported an incident that occurred in Ontario, Canada, in which a trans-identifying biological male, sexually assaulted a biological woman at a women’s shelter.
Last August, convicted sex offender and self-identified transgender “woman” Shane Jacob Green, also known as Stephanie, was arrested and charged with two counts of sexual assault at a women’s shelter in Parry Sound, Ontario, after allegedly raping one of the women there, according to the Toronto Sun.
There are also several pending civil rights lawsuits filed by attorneys on behalf of female inmates who have reported being raped by men they were incarcerated with because the men claimed to be females.
In April of 2022, a Rikers inmate, biological male Ramel Blount, 33, who goes by Diamond Blount, raped a female prisoner while in the women’s section of the jail.
Similar gender-defining bills to Kansas’s “Women’s Bill of Rights” are pending in other states, including in Oklahoma and Montana.
