Text of PA SB 213 (2025)

PRINTER'S NO. 183 THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA SENATE BILL No. 213 Session of 2025 INTRODUCED BY MASTRIANO, DUSH, HUTCHINSON, COSTA AND J. WARD, FEBRUARY 4, 2025 REFERRED TO STATE GOVERNMENT, FEBRUARY 4, 2025 AN ACT Recognizing two sexes, male and female; and providing for duties and prohibitions. The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania hereby enacts as follows: Section 1. Short title. This act shall be known and may be cited as the Two Gender Protection Act. Section 2. Policy. The General Assembly finds and declares that it is the policy of the Commonwealth to recognize two sexes, male and female. The sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality. Section 3. Definitions. The following words and phrases when used in this act shall have the meanings given to them in this section unless the context clearly indicates otherwise: "Boy." A juvenile human male. "Female." An individual belonging, at conception, to the sex 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 that produces the large reproductive cell. "Gender ideology." The replacement of the biological category of sex with a concept of self-assessed gender identity. The term includes the idea that there is a vast spectrum of genders that are disconnected from one's sex. "Gender identity." A fully internal and subjective sense of self, disconnected from biological reality and sex and existing on an infinite continuum, that does not provide a meaningful basis for identification and cannot be recognized as a replacement for sex. "Girl." A juvenile human female. "Woman." An adult human female. "Man." An adult human male. "Male." An individual belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the small reproductive cell. "Sex." An individual's immutable biological classification as either male or female. The term does not include the concept of gender identity. Section 4. Biological distinction. (a) Guidance.--Within 30 days of the effective date of this subsection, the Secretary of Health shall provide to the Commonwealth and the public clear guidance expanding on the sex- based definitions in section 3. (b) Enforcement and terms.--Each agency and State employee shall enforce laws governing sex-based rights, protections, opportunities and accommodations to protect men and women as biologically distinct sexes. Each agency should give the terms "sex," "male," "female," "men," "women," "boys" and "girls" the meanings in section 3 when interpreting or applying statutes, regulations or guidance and official agency business, documents 20250SB0213PN0183 - 2 - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 and communications. (c) Sex-based distinctions.--If administering or enforcing sex-based distinctions, each agency and State employee acting in an official capacity on behalf of the agency shall use the term "sex" and not "gender" in all applicable Commonwealth policies and documents. (d) Identification documents.--The Secretary of the Commonwealth shall implement changes to require that government- issued identification documents accurately reflect the holder's sex. The head of each agency shall ensure that applicable personnel records accurately report a State employee's sex. (e) Removal.--Agencies shall remove statements, policies, regulations, forms, communications or other internal and external messages that promote or otherwise inculcate gender ideology and shall cease issuing the statements, policies, regulations, forms, communications or other messages. Agency forms that require an individual's sex shall list male or female and shall not request gender identity. Agencies shall take all necessary steps, as permitted by law, to end the Federal funding of gender ideology. (f) Single-sex and gender neutral spaces.-- (1) The Attorney General shall immediately issue guidance to agencies to prohibit the requirement of gender identity-based access to single-sex spaces and shall issue guidance and assist agencies in protecting sex-based distinctions. (2) State institutions, schools and other State-funded locations may provide gender neutral bathrooms and changing areas that are completely private and separate from single- sex spaces. 20250SB0213PN0183 - 3 - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 (g) Prohibition of fund use.--State funds may not be used to promote gender ideology. Each agency shall assess grant conditions and grantee preferences and ensure that grant funds do not promote gender ideology. Section 5. Privacy in intimate spaces. (a) Prisons.--The Attorney General and Secretary of Corrections shall ensure that males are not detained in women's prisons or housed in women's detention centers. (b) Single-sex rape shelters.--The Secretary of Labor and Industry shall submit to the General Assembly a policy for the protection of women seeking single-sex rape shelters. (c) Medical care.--The Attorney General shall ensure that the Department of Corrections revises its policies concerning medical care to be consistent with this act and shall ensure that no State funds are expended for a medical procedure, treatment or drug for the purpose of conforming an inmate's appearance to that of the opposite sex. (d) Effectuation.--Agencies shall effectuate this act by taking appropriate action to ensure that intimate spaces designated for women, girls or females or for men, boys or males are designated by sex and not identity. Section 6. Protecting rights. The Attorney General shall issue guidance to ensure the freedom to express the binary nature of sex and the right to single-sex spaces in workplaces and any State-funded entities. In accordance with the guidance, the Attorney General and each head of an agency shall prioritize investigations and litigation to enforce the rights and freedoms. Section 7. Agency implementation and reporting. (a) Update.--Within 120 days of the effective date of this 20250SB0213PN0183 - 4 - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 subsection, each agency head shall submit an update on implementation of this act to the Governor. The update shall address: (1) changes to agency documents, including regulations, guidance, forms and communications, made to comply with this act; and (2) agency-imposed requirements on State-funded entities, including contractors, to achieve the policy of this act. (b) Guidance documents.--Each agency head shall promptly rescind guidance documents inconsistent with the requirements of this act or the Attorney General's guidance issued under this act, or rescind the parts of any documents that are inconsistent in that manner. Section 8. Construction. (a) Authority.--Nothing in this act shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head of the executive department or agency. (b) Implementation.--This act shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations. (c) Right or benefit.--This act is shall not create a right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the Commonwealth, its departments, agencies or entities, its officers, employees or agents, or any other person. Section 9. Effective date. This act shall take effect in 120 days. 20250SB0213PN0183 - 5 - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29