SB 213 — An Act recognizing two sexes, male and female; and providing for duties and prohibitions.

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
 1   Recognizing two sexes, male and female; and providing for duties
 2      and prohibitions.
 3      The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
 4   hereby enacts as follows:
 5   Section 1.   Short title.
 6      This act shall be known and may be cited as the Two Gender
 7   Protection Act.
 8   Section 2.   Policy.
 9      The General Assembly finds and declares that it is the policy
10   of the Commonwealth to recognize two sexes, male and female.
11   The sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and
12   incontrovertible reality.
13   Section 3.   Definitions.
14      The following words and phrases when used in this act shall
15   have the meanings given to them in this section unless the
16   context clearly indicates otherwise:
17      "Boy."    A juvenile human male.
18      "Female."   An individual belonging, at conception, to the sex
 1   that produces the large reproductive cell.
 2      "Gender ideology."    The replacement of the biological
 3   category of sex with a concept of self-assessed gender identity.
 4   The term includes the idea that there is a vast spectrum of
 5   genders that are disconnected from one's sex.
 6      "Gender identity."    A fully internal and subjective sense of
 7   self, disconnected from biological reality and sex and existing
 8   on an infinite continuum, that does not provide a meaningful
 9   basis for identification and cannot be recognized as a
10   replacement for sex.
11      "Girl."    A juvenile human female.
12      "Woman."    An adult human female.
13      "Man."    An adult human male.
14      "Male."    An individual belonging, at conception, to the sex
15   that produces the small reproductive cell.
16      "Sex."    An individual's immutable biological classification
17   as either male or female. The term does not include the concept
18   of gender identity.
19   Section 4.    Biological distinction.
20      (a)   Guidance.--Within 30 days of the effective date of this
21   subsection, the Secretary of Health shall provide to the
22   Commonwealth and the public clear guidance expanding on the sex-
23   based definitions in section 3.
24      (b)   Enforcement and terms.--Each agency and State employee
25   shall enforce laws governing sex-based rights, protections,
26   opportunities and accommodations to protect men and women as
27   biologically distinct sexes. Each agency should give the terms
28   "sex," "male," "female," "men," "women," "boys" and "girls" the
29   meanings in section 3 when interpreting or applying statutes,
30   regulations or guidance and official agency business, documents

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 1   and communications.
 2      (c)   Sex-based distinctions.--If administering or enforcing
 3   sex-based distinctions, each agency and State employee acting in
 4   an official capacity on behalf of the agency shall use the term
 5   "sex" and not "gender" in all applicable Commonwealth policies
 6   and documents.
 7      (d)   Identification documents.--The Secretary of the
 8   Commonwealth shall implement changes to require that government-
 9   issued identification documents accurately reflect the holder's
10   sex. The head of each agency shall ensure that applicable
11   personnel records accurately report a State employee's sex.
12      (e)   Removal.--Agencies shall remove statements, policies,
13   regulations, forms, communications or other internal and
14   external messages that promote or otherwise inculcate gender
15   ideology and shall cease issuing the statements, policies,
16   regulations, forms, communications or other messages. Agency
17   forms that require an individual's sex shall list male or female
18   and shall not request gender identity. Agencies shall take all
19   necessary steps, as permitted by law, to end the Federal funding
20   of gender ideology.
21      (f)   Single-sex and gender neutral spaces.--
22            (1)   The Attorney General shall immediately issue
23      guidance to agencies to prohibit the requirement of gender
24      identity-based access to single-sex spaces and shall issue
25      guidance and assist agencies in protecting sex-based
26      distinctions.
27            (2)   State institutions, schools and other State-funded
28      locations may provide gender neutral bathrooms and changing
29      areas that are completely private and separate from single-
30      sex spaces.

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 1      (g)   Prohibition of fund use.--State funds may not be used to
 2   promote gender ideology. Each agency shall assess grant
 3   conditions and grantee preferences and ensure that grant funds
 4   do not promote gender ideology.
 5   Section 5.   Privacy in intimate spaces.
 6      (a)   Prisons.--The Attorney General and Secretary of
 7   Corrections shall ensure that males are not detained in women's
 8   prisons or housed in women's detention centers.
 9      (b)   Single-sex rape shelters.--The Secretary of Labor and
10   Industry shall submit to the General Assembly a policy for the
11   protection of women seeking single-sex rape shelters.
12      (c)   Medical care.--The Attorney General shall ensure that
13   the Department of Corrections revises its policies concerning
14   medical care to be consistent with this act and shall ensure
15   that no State funds are expended for a medical procedure,
16   treatment or drug for the purpose of conforming an inmate's
17   appearance to that of the opposite sex.
18      (d)   Effectuation.--Agencies shall effectuate this act by
19   taking appropriate action to ensure that intimate spaces
20   designated for women, girls or females or for men, boys or males
21   are designated by sex and not identity.
22   Section 6.   Protecting rights.
23      The Attorney General shall issue guidance to ensure the
24   freedom to express the binary nature of sex and the right to
25   single-sex spaces in workplaces and any State-funded entities.
26   In accordance with the guidance, the Attorney General and each
27   head of an agency shall prioritize investigations and litigation
28   to enforce the rights and freedoms.
29   Section 7.   Agency implementation and reporting.
30      (a)   Update.--Within 120 days of the effective date of this

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 1   subsection, each agency head shall submit an update on
 2   implementation of this act to the Governor. The update shall
 3   address:
 4            (1)   changes to agency documents, including regulations,
 5      guidance, forms and communications, made to comply with this
 6      act; and
 7            (2)   agency-imposed requirements on State-funded
 8      entities, including contractors, to achieve the policy of
 9      this act.
10      (b)     Guidance documents.--Each agency head shall promptly
11   rescind guidance documents inconsistent with the requirements of
12   this act or the Attorney General's guidance issued under this
13   act, or rescind the parts of any documents that are inconsistent
14   in that manner.
15   Section 8.     Construction.
16      (a)     Authority.--Nothing in this act shall be construed to
17   impair or otherwise affect the authority granted by law to an
18   executive department or agency, or the head of the executive
19   department or agency.
20      (b)     Implementation.--This act shall be implemented
21   consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability
22   of appropriations.
23      (c)     Right or benefit.--This act is shall not create a right
24   or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in
25   equity by any party against the Commonwealth, its departments,
26   agencies or entities, its officers, employees or agents, or any
27   other person.
28   Section 9.     Effective date.
29      This act shall take effect in 120 days.



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