If Texas wants to stand with women, the Texas legislature must pass House Bill 229 and codify definitions of sex-based terms like “male” and “female” into state law.
When the law fails to define biological sex, males wind up taking over women’s spaces. Both of us know this all too well, having intimately experienced the consequences of failing to exclude men from spaces intended for females.
One of us, Amie Ichikawa, is a former prisoner who saw firsthand what admitting transgender-identifying males into California prisons meant for female prisoners: abuse, invasion of privacy, and pressure to be silent. Transgender-identifying male prisoners, many of whom are convicted sex offenders, are being placed into women’s prisons without regard to the safety of the women incarcerated there—simply on the basis of self-declared “gender identity.”
These males are often sexually attracted to women, leading to sex in prisons—whether consensual or forced—where sex is not permitted. In California, the legislature has even tacitly accepted this appalling situation, responding to complaints only by placing condom machines in women’s prisons, adding insult to injury. There is no right to privacy in prisons, and rooms are shared, so prisoners cannot escape (or consent to) hearing and seeing what their cellmates are doing. It’s not just uncomfortable for women behind bars; it’s unjust. And for prisoners with prior sexual trauma, it’s sure not rehabilitation.
Amie and her fellow female prisoners should have been allowed to focus on serving their sentences without fearing sexual assault.
The other author, Payton McNabb, is an athlete who was injured as a teenager in North Carolina when a male athlete on the opposing women’s team spiked a volleyball into her face, partially paralyzing her. Given that males throw about 25% further than females, and have larger hearts, larger lungs, more bone and muscle mass, and less fat, it’s not shocking that a male on the opposing team was able to cause her traumatic brain injury. What is shocking, however, is the fact that the adults in charge ignored the safety of girls like Payton entirely and instead created policies that allowed males in all-girls matches in the first place.
Later in college, when Payton spoke up about a man in the women’s restroom, the administration subjected her to a Title IX civil rights investigation—which she won.
Payton should have been allowed to be a normal teenage girl. But because of the presence of a male on a girls’ sports team, she’s “not the same kid.”
Both of our experiences show just what happens when the law refuses to distinguish between the sexes.
As the text of House Bill 229 notes, “there are legitimate reasons to distinguish between the sexes with respect to athletics, prisons and other correctional facilities, domestic violence shelters, rape crisis centers, locker rooms, restrooms, and other areas where biology, safety, or privacy are implicated.”
Legislators have a moral responsibility to protect women like us in spaces meant for females only. President Trump has already signed an executive order to define male and female, titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.” Governor Abbott sent out a letter supporting this executive order, stating, “The State of Texas recognizes only two sexes—male and female.”
Some might ask, with such strong action taken already by the president and the governor, why the state legislature needs to pass HB 229. Primarily because executive orders are not as permanent as legislation, and because many state-level matters rely on state, not federal, law.Executive orders come and go with presidents, and if a president who does not support women’s spaces is elected in 2028—or if Texas elects a new governor in 2026 who does not enforce President Trump’s executive order—women’s rights will be at risk. While we appreciate individuals in executive positions who have taken action to protect women, we cannot risk our rights as women on the elections of one or two people. President Trump’s executive order and Governor Abbott’s reinforcement of it only buy women time before legislators can enshrine sex definitions permanently and ensure that what happened to us will not happen to any woman in Texas.
Payton McNabb is an Independent Women ambassador and a former high school athlete. Amie Ichikawa is an Independent Women ambassador and founder of Woman || Woman.