The Idaho House voted Wednesday to pass legislation defining “male” and "female,” and stating that there are “only two sexes.”
Members voted 54-14, with one marked absent, to send HB 421 to the Senate.
Bill sponsor Rep. Julianne Young, R-Blackfoot, said the legislation seeks to answer a question of, “are sex-based distinctions in the law appropriate and beneficial or are they harmful instruments of oppression which should be undefined and erased?”
In her bill, Young ties definitions of male and female to past or potential reproductive functions.
“It’s pretty simple, males produce sperm and females produce eggs,” Young said, noting that the bill says this is true if the person has, had or would have had these functions if not for a “developmental or genetic anomaly or historical accident.”
She said it would maintain the state's ability to govern sex-separated facilities, such as bathrooms and changing facilities.
Some who debated against it had concerns that other bills that defined sex or dealt with these issues are still being litigated in the courts, such as HB 71, which prohibits gender-affirming health care for minors and is currently being blocked by a federal court from taking effect.
Others said it is harmful in its denial of Idahoans with transgender or gender non-conforming identities.
House Assistant Minority Leader Lauren Necochea, D-Boise, questioned the sources from which the definitions came from. She highlighted that Young said she worked with the Heritage Foundation and the Alliance for Defending Freedom (ADF).
Necochea said that the ADF has said that the “homosexual agenda will destroy Christianity and society,” which is on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s webpage that designates ADF as an LGBTQ hate group.
