Alabama Senate approves bill defining gender based on biological sex

by Alander Rocha, Alabama Reflector
February 6, 2025

The Alabama Senate Thursday approved a bill defining “sex-based terms” strictly based on biological sex. 

SB 79, sponsored by Sen. April Weaver, R-Alabaster, passed the chamber on a 26-5 vote. The legislation would define “sex” as the “the state of being male or female as observed or clinically verified at birth,” and provides further definitions for male, female, man, woman, boy, girl, mother and father.

“This bill is based on a fundamental truth that is as old as the book of Genesis and as reliable as the sun in the sky. Men are born men and women are born women, and this legislation simply reinforces that inescapable fact,” Weaver said to the Senate.

Critics said the bill opened the door to further legal discrimination against transgender Alabamians. Rep. Susan DuBose, R-Hoover, has filed a similar bill for the past two years, and Gov. Kay Ivey endorsed the legislation in her State of the State address on Tuesday.

The bill defines genders as “male” and “female” based on the human reproductive system. Female would be defined as a person “who has, had, will have, or would have, but for a developmental anomaly, genetic anomaly, or accident, the reproductive system that at some point produces ova.”

Likewise, male would be defined as someone “who has, had, will have, or would have, but for a developmental anomaly, genetic anomaly, or accident, the reproductive system that at some point produces sperm.”

Allison Montgomery, a member of Alabama Trans Rights Action Coalition (ALTRAC), said in a phone interview after the bill’s passage Thursday the legislation creates legal justification for discrimination. Montgomery said the bill is “one step away from a bathroom bill or a ban on trans people in bathrooms,” pointing to the bill initially being a bathroom ban before being amended. Alabama passed a bill in 2022 banning K-12 students from using the bathroom corresponding with the sex assigned at birth.

“The sponsors of this bill are starting with a predetermined conclusion and cherry-picking examples to support their viewpoint, instead of just following the facts where they lead,” Montgomery said. 

Sen. Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham, spoke at length about the “discriminatory manner” the bill “is going to be able to implement,” citing his experiences with Alabama’s Jim Crow laws when he was younger. Smitherman said he was concerned about how the definitions in the bill would be applied.

“Implementation of the intent, if it’s not clear in here, is subject to the person who has authority, thanks to what you’ve implemented, and that may be totally contrary to the problems and the things that we’re- that I’m trying to address to make sure that does not happen in this situation,” he said.

Sen. Linda Coleman-Madison, D-Birmingham, said that using Christianity to justify the bill “rubs me the wrong way.”

“None of this is based on the Bible and what the Bible says of how we treat each other,” Coleman-Madison said.

But Weaver doubled down on the definitions being “biological facts” and said that this is the “simplest and easiest to understand bill” that lawmakers will see during this session.

“I would be happy to go testify wherever I needed to, to talk about the intent of this bill, and I would challenge anybody to make the case that any of these definitions listed here are in any way inaccurate,” she said.

Weaver said the bill wouldn’t stop people from “doing whatever they want to do,” saying that the bill only puts “common sense” definitions into law.

Madison-Coleman said common sense is not something everybody has, and legislation would be creating a problem.

“When you put something into law and everybody has to abide by the law, now you change the treatment, or mistreatment, of a person based on a perception of a law that we pass, by definition that this person doesn’t fit in this square,” Madison-Coleman said.

Montgomery rejected the “common sense” framing, pointing to public testimony from transgender individuals who said the bill could force them into unsafe spaces.

“It is not common sense to take a man with a full beard and a deep voice, receding hairline, one who is transgender, who this bill would define as female, and say you have to use the women’s room. That’s not common sense to anybody,” Montgomery said.

Coleman-Madison also pointed to the Alabama Supreme Court’s decision last year that defined frozen embryos outside the womb as “children” and allowed parents to file civil lawsuits over the destruction of embryos under an 1872 law.

“We are going down a slippery slope that we don’t need to go down once again, shining a negative light on the state of Alabama like we’re from some backwoods- this doesn’t make any sense at all, and I’m sorry, I just cannot agree with your rationale,” Coleman-Madison said.

The bill moves to the full House.

Alabama Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Alabama Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Brian Lyman for questions: info@alabamareflector.com.

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