Indiana Republicans want to re-write the law to eliminate the word “gender”

A new bill proposed by Indiana Republican lawmakers would legally erase transgender people and reaffirm the state’s ban on same-sex marriage.

H.B. 1291 would remove the word “gender” from state laws and replace it with the expression “biological sex,” including in anti-discrimination laws. The bill also redefines the terms “male” and “female” to be based on whether someone can produce sperm or ova and redefines other gendered terms based on body parts.

Related:

Indiana judge blocks ban on gender-affirming care for trans youth

The ACLU called the ruling “a victory” for trans youth and their families.

This would effectively erase trans identity from the law, banning trans people from correcting gender markers on their documents to reflect their lived reality.

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It says that intersex people are male or female “but for a medically verifiable genetic disorder of sex development,” which is related to a common conservative idea that all intersex people can be easily categorized as male or female.

“Only a female may marry a male. Only a male may marry a female,” the bill reads in a section that lists state laws and how they need to be changed to implement the new, anti-trans definitions. “A marriage between persons of the same biological sex is void in Indiana even if the marriage is lawful in the place where it is solemnized.”

While that part of the bill wouldn’t go into effect if H.B. 1291 is passed because the Supreme Court ruled in 2015 that all states must recognize same-sex marriages, it would go into effect if the Supreme Court were to overturn its Obergefell decision. Moreover, it shows that many Republicans still want to end marriage equality in the United States, which is why doing so is still included in the national Republican Party platform to this day.

“Indiana has filed a bill to end ALL recognition of transgender people,” journalist Erin Reed posted on X. “It is one of several states to do so, perfectly mirroring Russia’s 2020 law and Hungary’s 2023.”

Last April, Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb (R) signed a bill that bans transgender youth from accessing gender-affirming care. The bill was temporarily blocked two months later by a federal judge.

Indiana banned same-sex marriage in 1986 and banned recognition of same-sex marriages performed in other states in 1997. While there were several attempts to pass a constitutional amendment banning marriage equality in the Hoosier State, none of them succeeded.