Bill > HB1209

This bill, known as the Classification by Biological Sex Act, establishes strict guidelines for how biological sex is defined and classified in Illinois. The bill requires all public schools, school districts, and state or local agencies collecting statistical data to classify individuals as either male or female based on their sex at birth. It introduces new legal definitions that emphasize biological reproductive characteristics, stating that sex is determined by an individual's reproductive system at birth - females are defined as those capable of producing ova, and males as those capable of fertilizing ova. The bill also provides specific definitions for terms like "woman", "girl", "man", and "boy", always linking them to biological reproductive characteristics. The legislation is grounded in the legal principle of intermediate constitutional scrutiny, which allows for distinctions between sexes if those distinctions are substantially related to important governmental objectives. By amending the Statute on Statutes, the bill seeks to provide clear, biological-based definitions that would apply across all state statutes, rules, and regulations, effectively standardizing how sex and gender-related terms are interpreted in Illinois law.