Defining SEX Act
The Heritage Foundation
A base definition of sex for state law. Pair it with the other bills on this page instead of inventing a second definition.
Resources
Start here
Sex definitions are the base text. Heritage’s Defining SEX Act and Independent Women’s definition act are nearly the same. Pick one base definition and reuse it in every other bill. Independent Women’s January 2025 Stand with Women Act is the all-in-one bill (definitions, single-sex spaces, and sex-based data). Their 2022 Women’s Bill of Rights was an earlier short version — for new drafting, use the 2025 models.
The Heritage Foundation
A base definition of sex for state law. Pair it with the other bills on this page instead of inventing a second definition.
Independent Women’s Voice / Independent Women’s Law Center · January 2025
Independent Women’s standalone definition act. Nearly the same as Heritage’s Defining SEX Act — pick one base and reuse it.
Independent Women’s Voice / Independent Women’s Law Center · January 2025
The all-in-one 2025 bill: definitions, single-sex spaces, and sex-based data. Facility sections are also listed under bathrooms, shelters, and prisons.
Medicine
Models that limit puberty blockers, hormones, and surgeries for minors — plus related protections for detransitioners.
Do No Harm · January 2023 · The JUSTice For Adolescent and Child Transitioners Act
Blocks puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries for minors. Also covers school secrecy, public funding, liability insurance, and a private cause of action.
Do No Harm · November 28, 2023
Informed consent, care, insurance, public reporting, birth-record restoration, and lawsuit provisions for people who detransition.
Family Research Council · brief dated April 6, 2022
A policy brief on banning puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and transition surgeries for minors. Useful background — not a full bill template you can introduce as-is.
Family Research Council · ~2022
Background on counseling bans that outlaw talk therapy for gender dysphoria or unwanted same-sex attraction, and on counseling-protection bills. Not a full bill template.
Enacted Arkansas law
Arkansas’s 2021 law that bans puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and gender-transition surgery for minors. Other states often use this enacted law as a working example.
Family Policy Alliance
Model language to ban puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and gender-transition surgery for people under 18, with liability for providers who violate it. Family Policy Alliance says versions of these protections are now law in 27 states. The full model bill text is not posted online — contact Family Policy Alliance for the drafting language, or contact us and we can help connect you.
Schools and parents
School rules on names, pronouns, and what parents get told — plus curriculum and classroom models.
The Heritage Foundation
Staff use the birth-certificate name and sex-based pronouns unless parents consent in writing. Protects staff who refuse opposite-sex pronouns.
Enacted Florida law · 2022
Florida’s 2022 parent-notice law. Schools must tell parents about changes in a student’s mental, emotional, or physical health or well-being. Districts may not keep secret policies that hide that from parents. It also limited classroom teaching on sexual orientation and gender identity in the early grades.
Enacted Florida law · 2023
Follow-up to Parental Rights in Education. Bans classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity from pre-K through grade 8 (with narrow exceptions). In grades 9–12, any such instruction must meet state age-appropriate standards. Also defines sex in the education code, sets rules on personal titles and pronouns, and tightens how schools handle contested library and classroom materials.
Florida State Board of Education · effective August 22, 2023
Educator-conduct rule that puts the classroom limits into force for licensed teachers: no intentional SOGI classroom instruction in pre-K through grade 8 (except where statute requires it); grades 9–12 only if required by state standards or in an opt-out health lesson. Also ties educator discipline to sex-separated facilities and personal-title/pronoun rules. Implements HB 1069 for the classroom side.
Manhattan Institute · Christopher F. Rufo · February 7, 2023
Curriculum, pronouns, and secret social transition. Bars secret social transition, preferred names and pronouns, and gender instruction without parental consent. Requires curriculum transparency. This is think-tank model text, not a statute.
Think-tank model text — not a statute. Do not file it as bill language without rewriting it into your state’s code.
Manhattan Institute · Rufo, Copland, Ketcham · December 1, 2021
Broader school-board template: public posting of staff-training and student instructional materials, with optional scope covering sex, gender, and related topics. Companion to the February 2023 sexuality and gender model (that model’s Section 4 already specializes transparency to gender materials).
Think-tank model text — not a statute. Do not file it as bill language without rewriting it into your state’s code.
Do No Harm · January 2023 · public school transparency
The school-transparency section of the JUST FACTs Act. Same PDF as the medical bill above.
The Heritage Foundation · January 6, 2025
A school-board policy, published as full text. It is district policy language, not a state statute.
Independent Women’s Voice · 2025
Short 10-point school-board commitment: academic focus; no coercing kids to hide information from parents; sex-based sports, bathrooms, locker rooms, and overnight stays; parental consent for medical and social or mental interventions and extracurriculars; no compelled speech.
Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty
Downloadable board policies: parental notification and consent for names and pronouns (#32); staff use of student pronouns and conscience (#33); sex-separate restrooms and locker rooms (#42); K–12 athletics separated by biological sex (#46).
School Boards for Academic Excellence · August 2024
Compact district policy: biological sex definitions; parental notification for counseling about gender; legal name and sex on official records; names and pronouns tied to the official record unless an eligible student or parent authorizes otherwise; facilities and athletics by sex.
The Heritage Foundation
Raising a child consistent with sex is not abuse and is not grounds to remove a child or deny foster or adoptive placement.
Sports
Keep girls’ and women’s teams, leagues, and titles for females.
Independent Women’s Voice / Independent Women’s Law Center · January 2025 · An Act to Protect Equal Athletic Opportunities for Women and Girls
Defines sex and reserves female athletic events for females. This is the current Independent Women’s standalone sports model.
Enacted Idaho law · 2020
This is the text most states have copied. Later “Save Girls’ Sports” and “Fairness in Women’s Sports” bills follow this approach.
Family Policy Alliance
A campaign to keep girls’ and women’s sports female-only. Family Policy Alliance says versions of these protections are law in many states. The full model bill text is not posted online — use their campaign page to contact them for the drafting language, or contact us and we can help connect you.
Single-sex spaces
Sex-separate bathrooms, locker rooms, shelters, and custody settings.
Independent Women’s Voice / Independent Women’s Law Center · January 2025
Sex-separates correctional facilities, juvenile detention, domestic-violence shelters, locker rooms, and school overnight trips, with single-occupancy alternatives.
Independent Women’s Voice / Independent Women’s Law Center · January 2025
Shelter, school restroom, and prison / juvenile-detention sections in the omnibus PDF.
Alliance Defending Freedom · PDF created April 22, 2016
Sex-designates multi-user restrooms, locker rooms, and showers. School-board policy, not a state statute. Dated — written in 2016.
Records
Keep sex accurate on IDs, records, data, and insurance rules.
The Heritage Foundation · June 2025
Keeps sex on birth certificates and other vital and state records as male or female as recorded at birth, with narrow corrections only (clerical error, disorder of sex development, or restoring a record that was wrongly changed).
Independent Women’s Voice / Independent Women’s Law Center · January 2025
Agencies and schools that collect sex data record each person as male or female as observed or clinically verified at birth.
Do No Harm · November 28, 2023 · legal restoration and insurance sections
Legal restoration and insurance sections for people who detransition. Same PDF as the medical listing above.
Do No Harm · January 2023 · funding and insurance sections
Funding and insurance sections of the JUST FACTs Act. Same PDF as the medical listing above.
Federal models
Federal study models on sports, privacy, and sex under Title IX — not state statutes.
Defense of Freedom Institute · May 2025 · Respect Equality in Sports, Privacy, and Education and Campus Transparency Title IX Act
Defines sex biologically. Keeps males out of women’s sports and sex-separated facilities. Protects parental rights. Restores campus due process. Bars agencies from rewriting Title IX by regulation.
Federal model law — not a state model statute.
Defense of Freedom Institute · December 2024
Agency-level rewrite that strips gender-identity rules and protects women’s sports, privacy, parental rights, speech, and due process.
Federal model regulations — not a state statute.
Related reading: puberty blockers, World Progress, and subscribe.
Subscribe. Get Updates.
Choose a daily news update, a weekly roundup, or both.