Montana Signs Bill Defining Sex As Either Male Or Female

Montana's governor has signed into law a bill defining sex as strictly 'male' or 'female' and unchangeable, making his state the fourth to enact legislature which supporters say reinforces common sense, but critics say is an attempt to erase the community.
Governor Greg Gianforte, who has , signed Bill 458 into law on Saturday.
'The new law codifies the long-recognized, commonsense, immutable, biologically-based definition of sex, male and female, while protecting people born intersex and not infringing on transgender individuals' ability to identify with whatever , but not sex, they wish,' said the governor's press secretary, Kaitlin Price.
Opponents said it was 'one of the worst anti-LGBTQ+ bills in the entire country', and vowed to challenge it through the courts. 
Greg Gianforte, the Republican governor of Montana, on Saturday signed into law a bill declaring that there are only two sexes: male and female
Critics of the bill are seen on May 3 marching through Missoula
The bill follows a well-trodden path.
Gianforte joins fellow Republican governors in Tennessee and North Dakota, who signed similar laws this year.
In Kansas, the Republican-dominated legislature overrode the veto of Democratic Governor Laura Kelly to enact its law.
The law, which comes into effect on October 1, distinguishes males and females by the presence of XY or XX chromosomes and the production of sperm and eggs 'under normal development.'
It states: 'In human beings, there are exactly two sexes, male and female, with two corresponding types of gametes.
'The sexes are determined by the biological and genetic indication of male or female, including sex chromosomes, naturally occurring sex chromosomes, gonads, and nonambiguous internal and external genitalia present at birth, without regard to an individual's psychological, behavioral, social, chosen, or subjective experience of gender.'
An amendment added to the bill, amid heated debate, states that its definitions include people 'who would otherwise fall within this definition' of male or female 'but for a biological or genetic condition.'
Some medical experts have said that phrasing is insufficient for all intersex people with wide-ranging sex characteristics.
Experts disagree on the number of intersex people: some say the figure is as high as 1.7 percent of the population - a figure used by the United Nations - while others put the number as low as 0.018 percent.
Critics, including transgender lawmakers SJ Howell and Zooey Zephyr, both Democrats from Missoula, said the bill would legally incorrectly define them and effectively write them out of state law.
Trans politician Zooey Zephyr is seen on April 26 speaking in the House
Zephyr stands in protest as demonstrators are arrested in the house gallery on April 24
'The reality is that there are people who are out living their lives, Montanans, our friends and community members, who do not fit into these definitions just because of their medical and biological reality,' said Howell, who is transgender nonbinary.
She told a debate in the House in April: 'Imagine my dismay at discovering that a state like Montana, my state, my home, says the government knows better.

There's two boxes, you got to choose, end of story.'
The Montana Human Rights Network said they will challenge the law.
'Gov. Gianforte just signed SB 458,' they tweeted. If you have any concerns concerning where by and how to use xxx mom son fuck HD movies, you can contact us at our own site.  
'MHRN condemns this bill and the harm it will do to the LGBTQ+ community. 
'We are committed to working with transgender, nonbinary, Two Spirit, and intersex community members to ensure that SB 458 does not take effect in October.' 

Protesters are seen on May 3 at the University of Montana campus in Missoula
Protesters are pictured calling for trans rights on May 3 in Missoula
Republican sponsors of the bills say they are not meant to discriminate against anyone, stressing that discrimination is already illegal.
'It seems 20 years ago nobody needed a definition of sex because everyone understood what it meant,' said Montana state Senator Carl Glimm, who introduced SB 458.
'But now there is a discrepancy about, 3 xxx 'Is sex gender and can I change it?' But sex you can't change.

Sex is just a fact.'
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the largest advocacy group for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people in the United States, has labeled the laws as 'erasure acts' aimed at forcing queer people back into the closet.
'We fear that these LGBTQ+ erasure acts could be the next type of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation to sweep the country,' HRC President Kelley Robinson told reporters this week.
While researchers say sex generally refers to physiological characteristics and gender is more a social construct, when it comes to federal civil rights law, they are essentially the same.
In the landmark 2020 decision in Bostock v.

Clayton County, the U.S. Supreme Court found that discrimination protections based on 'sex' also applied to sexual orientation and gender identity.
'By defining sex so narrowly, you are excluding LGBTQ people from bringing claims in state court based on discrimination on the basis of sex,' said Sarah Warbelow, HRC's legal director.
The laws also stand to limit nontransgender people who have a discrimination claim based on sex stereotyping, Warbelow said.
So far this year, Republican legislators in statehouses across the country have introduced more than 500 bills affecting LGBTQ rights with a particular focus on transgender people.

Around 50 have become law.