Tennessee Senate passes bill defining sex as gender at birth
Brady Knox
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Tennessee’s state Senate passed a bill to define a person’s sex based on his or her biological composition at birth.
The bill would codify everyone’s sex as “a person’s immutable biological sex as determined by anatomy and genetics existing at the time of birth and evidence of a person’s biological sex.”
The clarification would set everyone’s legal sex identity to be that given at birth, including transgender people. Likewise, the proposal has led to outcry from transgender activists.
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The bill still needs to clear the House and be signed into law by Gov. Bill Lee (R-TN). It faces several hurdles.
Aside from civil rights litigation, the bill could jeopardize $1.2 billion in federal education funding because it would go against federal rules, the Associated Press reported.
“The proposed language may result in increases to state and local expenditures associated with compliance measures, potential civil litigation and could jeopardize federal funding; however, due to multiple unknown factors, a precise fiscal impact cannot be determined,” according to Tennessee’s General Assembly website.
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The bill’s sponsor, Republican state Sen. Kerry Roberts, argued that the bill promotes “consistency” and should be pushed ahead regardless of the fiscal impact, according to Axios.
“I looked at the fiscal note and I just shook my head,” he said of the warnings of a potentially negative fiscal effect.