MONTGOMERY — A bill defining sex-based terms into Alabama law is heading to Gov. Kay Ivey’s desk to be signed into law after clearing the House of Representatives on Tuesday after Democratic lawmakers bemoaned the perceived political maneuvering.
The House gaveled in especially early on Wednesday, with lawmakers coming together at 8 a.m. House leadership introduced a special-order calendar, which is a specially assembled calendar approved by the House Rules Committee. This calendar allows lawmakers to vote on a series of bills not on the regular order calendar.
So-called 10-minute calendars are almost always utilized to tackle noncontroversial bills when limited time is a factor, giving only 10 minutes of debate for each bill. However, first on the special order was the so-called What is a Woman Act, which codifies the definitions of male, female, man, woman and other sex-based terms into Alabama law. The bill would codify concise definitions within state law, allowing for distinct male and female spaces and recognition of those spaces based on a person's biological sex.
Democratic lawmakers swiftly bemoaned the perceived lack of time to debate all the bills on the special-order calendar, taking nearly an hour before the body approved the calendar.
The House took up the Senate version of the bill, Senate Bill 79, sponsored by State Sen. April Weaver (R-Brierfield). The House version’s sponsor, State Rep. Susan DuBose (R-Hoover), presented it before the body.
DuBose attempted to pass virtually identical legislation in the previous two sessions. Her first bill was called the “What is a Woman Act,” based on a popular Matt Walsh documentary. The current version does not explicitly call the bill the “What is a Woman Act,” but DuBose’s initial label has stuck around ever since.
“We do need to pass this law for clarity, certainty and uniformity in the courts and in the laws of Alabama,” DuBose said. “We have used the word ‘woman’ 149 times in our Alabama laws. When these [laws] were passed, it was assumed that these words were tied to biology. This bill clarifies the original meaning of sex-based terms in our statutes. It ensures that laws passed by the legislature are applied as this body intended and not twisted by judges or bureaucrats. In Alabama, we know what a woman is.”
State Rep. Neil Rafferty (D-Birmingham) offered an amendment that died in committee the previous day due to a lack of a second to his motion to amend. Rafferty’s amendment clarified that nothing in the bill would permit “compulsory genital inspections or the use of a surveillance camera monitoring device in or immediately outside a single-sex space.”
DuBose declared that the proposed amendment was unfriendly and asked the body to table it. The amendment failed, and debate proceeded.
DuBose told 1819 News after the bill passed that she voted down Rafferty’s amendment because it would have required the bill to go back to the Senate for another vote.
“We had it exactly like it needed to be,” DuBose said. “If we would have added an amendment, it would have had to go back up to Senate debate. It’s not something that needed to be included in this bill, and if it’s something that we want to consider, it needs to be a standalone bill.”
After scattered statements from House Democrats in what remained of the 10 minutes of allotted debate, the bill passed with a vote of 77-12 with nine abstentions.
It now goes to Ivey’s desk to be signed into law.
Update 10:48 a.m.:
In a post on X, Ivey commended both DuBose and Weaver and said she was looking forward to signing the law "to codify common sense."
To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email craig.monger@1819news.com.
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