House Bill 50, Wyoming’s proposed “What Is a Woman Act,” has one purpose: to find out just how far far-right lawmakers can press the attack against transgender people. Is the electorate willing to let extremists legislate them out of existence?
Opinion
The bill deserves to die a quick death. HB 50 doesn’t solve any problems, it will waste valuable time during the short budget session starting Feb. 12, and if passed might cause the state to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funds.
Sponsored by Rep. Jeanette Ward (R-Casper), the act defines females and males under Wyoming law based on the “biological sex” identified on a person’s birth certificate, and prevents transgender people from being legally recognized as any other gender.
Ward, a freshman lawmaker, calls herself “a political refugee from fascist Illinois.” She spent her first year in the Wyoming Legislature trying to lock up librarians for stocking LGBTQ-themed books, taking away women’s reproductive rights and outlawing COVID-19 masks and vaccine mandates. Headed into year two, she’s teeing up more of the same.
Ward wants us to believe her latest bill is necessary to “reinforce the norm that biological sex is a reality [and] it protects women from being forced to share their private spaces with men.” She dismisses opponents’ charges that it marginalizes transgender people, claiming “nothing could be further from the truth.”
Nearly a decade ago, the Wyoming House hotly debated which bathrooms transgender people could use. Now Ward’s bill — modeled after the nation’s first “What Is a Woman” law passed in Kansas last year — once again tries to insert government into the most private of spaces, and to legalize even more disturbing forms of gender discrimination.
House Bill 50 states that “female” means a person whose biological reproductive system is developed to produce ova, while a “male” has a biological system that fertilizes the ova of a female.
Anyone who is born with a medically recognized condition of “disorder or difference in sex development” would be provided legal protections and accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act. However, this does not extend to athletics, prisons, domestic violence shelters, rape crisis centers, locker rooms, restrooms and any other areas where the government must protect the safety or privacy of cisgender people.
It’s a pretty neat trick, isn’t it? The passage of HB 50 would allow discrimination against transgender people under the guise of protecting them as “disabled.”
The ACLU of Wyoming strongly opposes the measure. “It’s trying to answer a question that is contextualized by far more than the biological gender norms that this bill is wanting to codify,” the ACLU explained on its website. “This bill establishes a definition of a man or woman that completely cuts transgender people out of the picture and attempts to place outdated gender assumptions as a rule of law.”
Ward and 15 Wyoming Freedom Caucus co-sponsors maintain they want to preserve citizens’ freedom, which is the antithesis of a bill that will prevent transgender people from authentically living their lives freely.
“The biological science of womanhood is a miracle,” Ward wrote in a Wyoming Tribune Eagle op-ed. “And it’s under attack. [This bill] simply defines ‘male’ and ‘female’ as society and science has understood those terms forever — until about five minutes ago.”
No, in its simplicity, HB 50 ignores many facts about chromosomal variations, such as intersex people, or people with diverse gender identities, such as transgender or nonbinary, and goes against scientific and social theories on biology. It blatantly skews the meaning of gender and sex and ignores history. Records of transgender and non-binary communities go back to at least 5000 B.C.
The World Health Organization notes biological sex, or sex assigned at birth, is based on physical characteristics a person is born with, such as chromosomes, reproductive organs and hormones. While infants are determined to be male, female or intersex, the label may not perfectly sum up all of one’s biology.
Gender, according to WHO, refers to socially determined roles for men and women and the relationships of and between groups of men and women. Because gender is a product of society, it can vary over different time periods and places.
Gender identity is a person’s internal sense or idea of their gender, according to the National Center for Transgender Equality. Gender expression is how a person presents themselves in terms of behavior and outward appearance, such as hair, outfits, pronouns and name use.
The question Wyoming voters should be asking is why do our lawmakers feel this is an issue of such paramount importance it must be codified in state statutes?
The Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law estimates Wyoming’s population of transgender youth ages 13-17 is 200, or .56%. For adults, it’s 300, or .48%.
The transgender issue that made far-right lawmakers apoplectic the past two sessions was trans girls competing in sports. The Legislature passed a ban on trans female athletes in 2023, though Gov. Mark Gordon noted the “overly draconian” bill would only affect four K-12 trans athletes in Wyoming. It’s such a hot-button political issue, he let it become law without his signature.
One hopeful sign HB 50 may not be destined for endless debate and fumbled by Gordon is that the legislator who foisted the unnecessary trans athlete ban on Wyoming opposes it.
Sen. Wendy Schuler (R-Evanston) told the Wyoming Tribune Eagle residents already have a good understanding of gender, and now isn’t the time to worry about social issues.
“I don’t think we need legislation for this,” Schuler said. “There’s so many other things that are just really, really important.”
But apparently, Schuler doesn’t feel the same way about House Bill 63 – Sex and gender changes for children-prohibited. The senator is co-sponsoring that anti-trans bill.
Schuler also said lawmakers must address skyrocketing property taxes, and that’s true. Fully funding the state Department of Health since federal COVID-19 relief funds have expired, and providing sufficient money to meet Wyoming’s constitutional mandate to offer a quality, equitable public education to all students should also be top priority.
Budget session rules require all bills to obtain a two-thirds majority to even be introduced. Hopefully, neither measure will clear that high bar.
Wyoming legislators should look at Montana’s experience passing anti-trans bills. In addition to being sued by the ACLU of Montana and two other groups, a fiscal analysis by nonpartisan legislative budget staff shows Montana could put $7.5 billion in federal special revenue at risk if the state is out of compliance with federal anti-discrimination laws and legal guidance.
Wyoming’s HB 50’s fiscal note says the Department of Family Services and Department of Workforce Services indicate the fiscal impact is “indeterminable.” The state is responsible for finding out before this bill moves even an inch forward.
In her op-ed, Ward admitted the bill could jeopardize federal funds, but she doesn’t care. “When we have a federal government who, like an abusive spouse, demands that states abandon her authority in exchange for millions of dollars, we cannot allow ourselves to be radicalized by dependence on those funds that require us to allow men in elementary school girls’ bathrooms,” she wrote.
Really? Supporters of the Kansas bill couldn’t point to any evidence that transgender women are a danger to girls in restrooms or other public spaces. Unless Ward can prove it’s happening in Wyoming, let’s stop the scare tactics about imaginary predators in every stall and return to reality.
Marcie Kindred of Cheyenne, a Wyoming Alliance for Freedom founding board member, told the Wyoming Tribune Eagle that HB 50 would “lessen the rights and bodily autonomy of very real people — and that’s transgender students. It’s not protecting anyone.”
I realize the bill is red meat for the radical right. Traditional Republicans need to step up and kill it.
The right wing continues its efforts to control people by imposing its archaic, superstitious beliefs on them. When will folks awaken? If people wait too long, it will be too late, as the country becomes a totally fascist state. Of course, the MAGAts will welcome it, so long as it leaves their popguns and big, noisy pickups alone.
Yes, it is clearly labeled, but when a trusted news source becomes an advocate, do you still trust them?
So much for wyofile’s impartial journalism. You have an obvious agenda. Telling people what they should do does not qualify as news.
This is, and is clearly labeled, an OPINION piece as opposed to a news story.
This is clearly labeled as “opinion.”
Only 2 genders. Male/Female. That it. You can dress and act as you wish. But like Popeye said. You is what you is.
Biology disagrees with you.
David. Please prove your comment. Humans only have two genders. Male Female. Yes on rare occasions there is born abnormal people. But that is not a gender. Only two sir. In humans Chromosomes don’t lie.
They don’t lie, but mutations happen when you’re dealing with millions of base pairs that they contain. There have been transgender people as long as people have existed. Oh, and Adam and Eve were no more than characters in a fairy tale that some call the “word of god”. Same for the flood and almost everything else in the “holy book”. Get over it. There’s more to life than superstition.
Ignorance is a lack of knowledge or understanding. Deliberate ignorance is a culturally-induced phenomenon, the study of which is called agnotology.
The word “ignorant” is an adjective that describes a person in the state of being unaware, or even cognitive dissonance and other cognitive relation, and can describe individuals who are unaware of important information or facts. Ignorance can appear in three different types: factual ignorance (absence of knowledge of some fact), object ignorance (unacquaintance with some object), and technical ignorance (absence of knowledge of how to do something)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignorance#:~:text=Ignorance%20can%20appear%20in%20three,of%20how%20to%20do%20something).
I was born in Natrona county and lived there 30 years. What I want to know who voted this wacko into office? I have talked to several people in her district and nobody knows who voted for her in the Republican primary. They talked to their neighbors and their neighbors, neighbors nobody voted for her. She was an out of stater and only lived in Casper for a few months when they elected her. I think that Chuck Gray needs to look into voter fraud in her district. I think the election was rigged. 🤣🤣🤣🤣 She needs to go back to where she came from. So far she has caused far more problems than solutions. I am going to guess she does not know what a a true fascist is.
If she needs to know she can look in the mirror at herself.
Here is another great example of the freedom caucus, wanting to tell us what to do.
Introducing the Bill into the budget session is a pathetic attempt to help further her agenda. An agenda of hate and lies and taking peoples rights away. She talks about fascist Illinois, and that she escaped from there. To the people of Illinois, please take her back. We Will give you money to take her back.
She wants to control what women do with their bodies, she wants to burn books, she wants to tell people who they are and what they are. She needs to remember we are in the equality state.
All people are created equal and the only thing that makes us unequal is people like Jeanette Ward. I am sure our legislature is going to kill the bill it doesn’t even get to the floor and waste valuable time.
How do we get to this point of people? Hating people for being who they are.
We have some serious budget issues in Wyoming that need to be addressed and hopefully this bill will be squashed immediately. Hopefully Jeanette Ward will be squashed in next election.
Why are we spending our time with something that affects a few people. Oh that’s right the big orange blob, Donald Trump brought up the issue. Well let’s say made up the issue.
People of Wyoming you need to wake up. Trump is a loser. The freedom caucus are losers and Jeanette ward is a definite loser. Nikki, Haley just won more of New Hampshire than Trump ever thought she would win.
I am a registered Republican and we need to make our state a true conservative Republican state again.
Fear sometimes leads to hate. Drake is asking all of us to stop being afraid. Transgender people do NOT hurt anyone at all. This campaign against transgender people is intended to put haters and people that stoke those fears in power. THAT leads to the Wyoming legislature officially rejecting Federal food aid AND rewarding rich ranchers and oil people that do not even know any poor people or regard folks down on their luck as deserving less than they could get at very little cost to Wyoming taxpayers. Electing haters leads to all of us being oppressed by people claiming to “represent us voters,” but actually representing their contributors, who want the legislature help those out of staters to make a profit off the rest of us.
Excellent article, Drake.
In a state that typically wants less government and more individual freedoms, I shake my head in bewilderment about such bills. I don’t know why we want the government in our bedrooms, looking in our pants, or interfering in women’s healthcare. Or libraries, for that matter. And who uses what bathroom. Hey, I have an idea….how about just bathrooms, like the family ones many places have established. One room – go in and lock the door. No one else in there so no worries what’s in your pants. But someone always thinks they know best for the rest of us. Surely there are bigger issues? Taxes? Schools? infrastructure? Affordable housing? Energy prices? Living wages?
This is Ethan from Wyoming. The first mistake made in the article above is talking about theories and then running with that theory as if it were fact. The difference between people who know whether they are a man or a woman and all the remaining people is that they want to run with their own theories regardless of any facts or wisdom behind their thoughts (referring to the people who don’t know). Any theory, if it is not based upon concrete unchangeable facts that have endured the rest of time, is just a wish that it was so. Any fact, if it cannot stand the rest of time, is not a fact and only a theory. An example: the Wyoming legislature made a law years ago saying it was a criminal act to cross another’s property without the property owners permission. Even they ignored the existing fact in federal law that says clearly that one can cross another’s property to get to public land beyond without the owners permission. In the same token, the existing laws of the universe exist so we as people have a concrete guide to look to for reference. It is science and theory that has tried to change and destroy those obvious guides on the guise that no one can know any absolute truths, so their science is the best you can get. Wake up people. Science even tells us that biological males have a clear physical advantage over biological females in sports; yet the people with a clear agenda other than that which is already recognized don’t care about that obvious fact. It is also a fact of the rules of the universe that if man and women quit producing offspring that the human population will cease to exist, but those with another agenda push abortion and the end of producing offspring if it does not fit their agenda. Wake up. The real battle is clearly before your eyes, and it is this: to not bow down to the next theory blowing in the wind , or should l say, the words of people that do not wish to accept the already existing facts and laws. Do stand up and fight for just causes, and do stand against just theories.
The female body in The Handmaid’s Tale is considered national property. There are seven categories of women dressed in different
colors: Wives dressed in blue, bitter and barren, wanting nothing more than to produce progeny for their powerful husbands. Aunts dressed in khaki with electronic cattle prods on their belts, who train the Handmaids on how to be proper women. The Handmaids in red, whose wombs are treated as governmental property. The Marthas in dull green, whose job it is to clean up and cook for the powerful. The Econowives in striped dresses, who strive to become Wives. The Widows dressed in black. But let’s not forget the Unwomen, who are to be starved to death and sacrificed as the scapegoat for all. Is this what the Freedom Caucus aims for to become a dystopian society of strictly enforced gender, social, religious and socio-economic roles? I wonder, Representative Ward, what color would you wear?
Ward brought her fascism to Wyoming. In fact, that’s only one out of several out of state kooks that have moved here and brought their nonsense with them. Right wing extremism is part of Wyoming. Let’s get rid of them.
There are as many intersex people as there are red-headed people. Can republicans chew on that fact for a while?
Kristine. There is no such thing as intersex people. We are not amoeba’s. Both male/female of all species are driven to breed and reproduce. Society has taken masculinity away from boys and femininity away from girls. They are left with this home brewed mental issues.