Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt, a Republican, has signed the "Women's Bill of Rights," which answers the question of "what is a woman" and bans biological men from female restrooms, sports, and prisons.
The bill was signed into law through executive order on Tuesday, August 1.
"Today, we're taking a stand against this out-of-control gender ideology that is eroding the very foundation of our society," Stitt said at the order signing. "We are going to be safeguarding the very essence of what it means to be a woman."
"Oklahomans are fed up with attempts to confuse the word woman and turn it into some kind of ambiguous prevented definition that harms our real women," Stitt continued.
The order identifies a "female" as someone whose biological reproductive system is designed to produce ova and a "male" is defined as someone whose biological reproductive system is designed to fertilize a female's ova.
Independent Women's Voice, the group that developed the model legislation that inspired the executive order, explains on their website, "Common sex-based words (such as ‘female,’ ‘male,’ ‘man,’ and ‘woman’) are used thousands of times throughout state and federal law. But, recently, activists have sought to redefine these words and separate sex from biology."
"This isn’t just about words. This jeopardizes our opportunities, privacy, and safety," the organization asserts. 🆕EXCLUSIVE: Oklahoma Governor Stitt will sign the #WomensBillOfRights tomorrow by Executive Order!🚺
The signing ceremony will take place at 10:00am CT, where IWV Spokeswoman @Riley_Gaines_ will join @GovStitt to mark this important moment for women.https://t.co/OzIXwLnRYe pic.twitter.com/dL2eO3xW7s
— Independent Women's Voice (@IWV) August 1, 2023
In the order, Stitt states that "radical gender ideologues threaten the hard-fought progress won by women and girls in our society, and the federal government is surrendering to their demands."
"There are definitional, practical, and material differences between the sexes that have implications for our law in Oklahoma," Stitt's order states. "To settle the unfounded confusion surrounding such basic questions as 'What is a woman?', this Order is intended to provide clarity, certainty, and uniformity to administrative actions and rules."
The Executive Order states, "'Woman' and 'girl' shall refer to natural persons who are female. 'Man' and 'boy' shall refer to natural persons who are male."
It also defines the word "mother" as a female parent of a child or children and "father" as a male parent.
“The state, any political subdivision, or any state agency or department including but not limited to public school districts that collects vital statistics for the purpose of gathering accurate public health, crime, economic or other data shall identify any natural person who is part of the collected data as either male or female as defined in Section 62 of Title 25 of the Oklahoma Statutes,” the bill states.
Kansas and Tennessee have also adopted the Women's Bill of Rights, and Montana has similar legislation that defines the sexes.
