Tennessee knows what a woman is!
Hello Friend,
Some exciting news to share with you from my home state of Tennessee! Just weeks after Kansas lawmakers enacted the Women’s Bill of Rights, Tennessee followed suit. 🎉

Late last night, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed legislation into law that legally defines terms such as ‘sex,’ ‘female,’ and ‘male.’ As a Tennessee native, resident, woman, and collegiate athlete, I am so proud of the Tennessee legislature.

The bill was inspired by Independent Women’s Voice’s Women’s Bill of Rights and helped close a loophole in the Tennessee Accommodation for All Children Act of 2021, which states that “Evidence of a person’s biological sex includes, but is not limited to, a government issued identification document that accurately reflects a person’s sex listed on the person’s original birth certificate,” but failed to add ‘sex’ as a defined term for statutory construction purposes. With the passage of this legislation, there is now clarity across all Tennessee laws, which use the term ‘sex’ hundreds of times.
CELEBRATE TN PASSAGE ([link removed])
For the past six months, IWV has been on the ground in Tennessee working with a team to engage state legislators on the importance of the Women’s Bill of Rights and why it’s crucial to protect women’s spaces, opportunities, and safety.

Our team worked closely with Tennessee state Senator Kerry Roberts and Tennessee state Representative Gino Bulso. Celebrating the bill’s passage, Roberts said, “I am proud to have worked with Independent Women’s Voice to amend Tennessee’s code to codify the most basic sex-based terms and ensure there is no confusion about the definition of male and female in Tennessee code.”

This Tennessee big win comes just days after Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti and 15 other attorneys general announced their collective support ([link removed]) for advancing the Women’s Bill of Rights. It also comes just the day after I was joined by U.S. Members of Congress on Capitol Hill for a press conference to highlight the need for WBOR legislation ([link removed]) , which will be considered by both House and Senate chambers. Women’s Bill of Rights companion bills were recently reintroduced in the 118th Congress — H.Res. 115 sponsored by Rep. Debbie Lesko and S.Res. 53 sponsored by Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith — and continue to gain cosponsors.
AMPLIFY WBOR MOMENTUM ([link removed])
General Skrmetti told IW, “Tennessee’s lawmakers have every right to reiterate that our laws against sex discrimination mean exactly what everyone has understood them to mean since the moment of their adoption. Passage of the Women’s Bill of Rights by the General Assembly and Governor Lee ensures continued protection of educational opportunities and privacy rights for girls and women.”

The Tennessee legislation will bring clarity, certainty, and uniformity across Tennessee code, preventing judges, unelected bureaucrats, and administrators from unilaterally redefining the word ‘sex’ to include ‘gender identity’ or from redefining the word ‘woman’ to mean anyone who “identifies as a woman.”

In this way, the Women’s Bill of Rights creates transparency, preserves truth in labeling, and protects the legislature’s authority to determine whether, and in what circumstances, rape crisis centers, domestic violence shelters, athletic teams, locker rooms, sororities, and dormitories should remain single-sex or be opened to biological males who identify as female.
SHARE THE WBOR NEWS ([link removed])
Here’s what others are saying about the WBOR Tennessee law:

“Change in society is natural, inevitable, and beneficial. But change must always be in accord with the laws of nature. Unfortunately, we have reached a point in society where common words like ‘man’ or ‘woman,’ ‘male’ or ‘female,’ ‘boy’ or ‘girl’ have come under attack. I am proud to have sponsored legislation to amend the Tennessee code to define the biological term ‘sex’ to ensure that our laws are crystal clear so that judges and bureaucrats understand the biological and genetic differences between a man and a woman.” —Tennessee state Representative Gino Bulso (R-Brentwood)

“I applaud the Tennessee legislature’s passage of their Women’s Bill of Rights. As the Radical Left continues to attack and erase women from society, it is more important than ever to ensure that protections against biological males’ access to women’s facilities and sports are enshrined into law.” —Congresswoman Diana Harshbarger (R-TN)

We know what a woman is. You know what a woman is. And, make no mistake, from the state legislature, to the governor, to the Congressional delegation, Tennessee’s elected leaders know what a woman is too!

Thank you for all your help in making these victories possible!

Other states across the nation inspired by WBOR are advancing similar legislation to clarify the legal meaning of common sex-based words. We’ll be back in touch with more news as the Women's Bill of Rights continues to advance.

Forward,
Riley Gaines

P.S. To take action you can help in two ways:
1. Sign the Women’s Bill of Rights ([link removed]) to raise its national awareness
2. Invest to support the expansion of the Women’s Bill of Rights ([link removed]) in other states.

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