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Senate Bill 458, a bill to define sex based on how a person’s reproductive system functions, passed out of the Senate chamber Friday on a 28-22 vote, despite briefly seeing a much closer margin due to fleeting Republican opposition. Proponents cast the bill as an attempt to clarify the definition of sex in light of public mainstreaming of “gender fluidity, gender transition, gender expression, transgenderism,” as the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Carl Glimm, R-Kila, argued during a Thursday floor debate. Opponents say the bill would strip legal recognition from transgender people and many people with intersex conditions, linking it to a continued tide of anti-trans and LGBTQ+ bills nationwide. It will now proceed to the House.
