defining biological sexes

Gov. Kay Ivey Thursday signed a law that declares there are only two sexes and puts legal definitions of sex-based terms into statute.

SB 79, sponsored by Sen. April Weaver, R-Alabaster, is among the first of bills from the 2025 Legislative Session to be signed into law. Known as the “What Is A Woman” bill, versions of it were previously carried by Rep. Susan DuBose, R-Hoover. Those versions did not pass out of the Senate. 

“In Alabama, we believe there are two genders: male and female,” Ivey said in a statement Thursday. “There is nothing complicated or controversial about it.”

The Senate approved the bill on Feb. 6. The House passed it on Wednesday after limiting debate over the measure to 10 minutes. 

The Alabama Transgender Rights Action Coalition, which spoke out against the bill at public hearings over the past two weeks, condemned the rushed process of passing the bill in a statement early Thursday.

“Indeed, Republicans chose to gavel in today when that was not required by rules or law, used this unusual process exclusively to vote on SB79, and adjourned immediately after,” ALTRAC said. 

Volunteer Allison Montgomery said in a statement Thursday she is not surprised that Ivey signed the bill.

“And now those of us who are actually affected by it will have to find a way to live under the discrimination it legalizes, because we certainly aren’t going anywhere,” the statement said. 

Rep. Neil Rafferty, D-Birmingham, offered an amendment Thursday that would prohibit surveillance in spaces like restrooms and changing rooms, but DuBose and House Republicans did not take it. DuBose, who presented the bill on the House floor Wednesday, repeatedly said the bill was simple, common sense, definitions on biological sex.

“If this bill was really just about ‘common-sense definitions,’ this common-sense amendment would’ve passed easily,” ALTRAC volunteer Hunter Fuller said in the statement.