On May 19, Montana Governor, Republican Greg Gianforte, signed a bill that essentially erases trans and nonbinary people. Senate Bill 458 states that a person’s sex can only be male or female and that sex is is defined by gamete size and chromosomes. The law prevents anyone from changing their sex and that the “subjective experience of gender” does not apply.
The law’s text defines “female” as “a member of the human species” with “XX chromosomes and produces or would produce relatively large, relatively immobile gametes, or eggs, during her life cycle and has a reproductive and endocrine system oriented around the production of those gametes.” It says that “male” means “a member of the human species” with “XY chromosomes and produces or would produce small, mobile gametes, or sperm, during his life cycle and has a reproductive and endocrine system oriented around the production of those gametes.” The bill accounts for intersex individuals with the caveat stating that “an individual who would otherwise fall within this definition, but for a biological or genetic condition” is female or male to each definition, although it does not say how one determines whether someone would be considered male or female.
Not only is this bill cruel, activists have pointed out that is has no point other than to harm the people of Montana. Planned Parenthood Advocates of Montana president and CEO Martha Fuller told Huff Post “This cruel legislation is the epitome of that blind extremism – a far-reaching bill written by lawmakers who can’t even articulate its implications.” She went on to call the bill one of the most disgraceful, heartless, and targeted attacks” on LGBTQ+ people acted out by Republicans.
“Simply put ― this disgusting legislation purely seeks to harm the people of Montana.”
Gianforte has a nonbinary gay son, David Gianforte, who called the anti-LGBTQ+ bills passed by the state legislature this year “immoral, unjust, and frankly a violation of human rights” but that did not stop the Republican father from signing this heinous bill.
