Texas Legislation Uses Real Science to Define Two Sexes: Male and Female

by Jeff Johnston | May 14, 2025 | Government Updates Sexuality

The Texas House passed a bill to define “sex” as male and female in government statutes and the state’s collection of vital statistics.

In the bill, HB 229, the Texas House used science to define male and female by their reproductive capacity – not the pseudo-scientific ideology of “gender” activists who claim that “sex is a spectrum.”

The legislation, which now moves to the Senate for consideration, passed by a vote of 87 to 56. It received fierce opposition from “transgender” activists, as The Texas Tribune reported:

Dozens of trans people and their allies gathered in the outdoor Capitol rotunda Friday, chanting at the top of their lungs, “They will not erase us.”

However, the bill erases no one – whatever that means.

Instead, as State Representative Ellen Troxclair posted, “The bill defines what a woman is, recognizing biological reality.”

Imbed post: https://x.com/EllenTroxclair/status/1922046267217031413

HB 229 begins by noting basic differences between females and males:

Males and females possess unique immutable biological differences that manifest prior to birth and increase as individuals age and experience puberty.
Biological differences between the sexes mean that only females are able to get pregnant, give birth, and breastfeed children.
Biological differences between the sexes mean that males are, on average, bigger, stronger, and faster than females.

The legislation states that girls and women have “historically suffered discrimination in education, athletics, and employment.” But “inconsistencies in court rulings and policy and policy initiatives” have led to conflicting definitions of sex-related terms, endangering “single-sex spaces and resources.”

HB 229 explains some of the areas where single-sex spaces need to be protected:

There are legitimate reasons to distinguish between the sexes with respect to athletics, prisons and other correctional facilities, domestic violence shelters, rape crisis centers, locker rooms, restrooms, and other areas where biology, safety, or privacy are implicated.

Every person is male or female, the bill states, adding that the small percentage of those “diagnosed with a disorder of sex development or as intersex are not considered to belong to a third sex,” and should be accommodated in state and federal laws.

Male and female are defined in the bill on the basis of the development of biological reproductive systems: Female bodies are “developed to produce ova,” and male bodies are developed “to fertilize the ova of a female.”

Colin Wright, an evolutionary biologist and a fellow at the Manhattan Institute, explains the scientific truth behind this simple definition in an article in City Journal, “Understanding the Sex Binary”:

When biologists claim that “sex is binary,” they mean something straightforward: there are only two sexes. This statement is true because an individual’s sex is defined by the type of gamete (sperm or ova) their primary reproductive organs (i.e., gonads) are organized, through development, to produce.

Males have primary reproductive organs organized around the production of sperm; females, ova. Because there is no third gamete type, there are only two sexes that a person can be. Sex is therefore binary.

Some transgender activists point to intersex conditions or other disorders of sexual development, such as when a female may have XY chromosomes or a male may have XXY or XX chromosomes, as evidence that sex is a spectrum. But Wright makes it clear that these are rare anomalies that do not create a third sex – these individuals do not create a different type of sperm or egg necessary for reproduction.

He points out that such individuals are almost always identifiable as male or female, as shown by their sex organs and anatomy. And, as he writes, real intersex conditions are very uncommon, and claims that intersexuality is the same as transgenderism is nonsense:

The terms intersex and transgender are entirely distinct and should not be conflated. Intersex people have rare (approximately 0.018 percent of all births) developmental conditions that result in apparent sex ambiguity.

Transgender people, on the other hand, need not be sexually ambiguous at all; indeed, current progressive orthodoxy insists that it is enough for one merely to “identify” as the opposite or neither sex.

Wright also explains a very important point – these activists and their allies conflate “how sex is determined with how sex is defined for an individual” (his emphasis). He adds:

“Sex determination” is a technical term in developmental biology referring to the process by which certain genes trigger and regulate sex development.

The normal developmental process may have things go awry, but those don’t negate the sexual binary – as determined by reproductive anatomy and a body’s capacity to produce one type of gamete – eggs or sperm.

Legislation similar to the common-sense law has been passed in 13 other states, with executive orders proclaiming the reality of male and female in two others. Let’s hope this bill passes – and that the trend continues in more states.

Related articles and resources:

Texas Values – A Focus on the Family ally that helps Texans engage in the legislative process

Key articles from Colin Wright on these issues:

Citations for the Gamete-Based Definition of Male and Female

Sex Is Not a Spectrum

Understanding the Sex Binary

Focus on the Family and Daily Citizen:

Counseling Consultation & Referrals

Even Hard-Boiled Evolutionists are Standing Strong Against Gender Madness

Mississippi Law Protects Single-Sex Spaces in Public Schools

President Trump: ‘There are Only Two Genders: Male and Female’

There is No Pride in Denying Reality or the Image of God in Humanity