Sanity, Safety, and Dignity

Defining male and female in Idaho Code

The endless “deconstruction” promulgated by Critical Theory afflicts our culture’s understanding of what it means to be a man or a woman, with tragic consequences.

When we linguistically blind ourselves to the beautiful and intricate design of male and female with which we are made, reinventing humanity in our own imagination, it becomes much easier to deny that we are made in the image of God. Recognition of Imago Dei is the only solid bulwark against our tendency to dehumanize one another. The concerted usage of coldly-mechanistic terms like “birthing people” is an affront to the dignity of motherhood and mothers. Our sudden lack of ability to articulate reasons why boys should not be in girls’ showers and locker rooms is patently absurd, and our compliance is undermining the safety of our daughters. It also does not help a society struggling with abdicating fathers to define manhood as either meaningless or oppressive. We have been thrust into a pitched linguistic battle for sanity, safety, and dignity, and we will no longer sit unarmed.

Idaho Code has hundreds of references to the two sexes, written in a time when the meanings were not subject to so much confusion. In today’s environment, however, federal agencies, various jurisdictions, and some courts are defining sex as gender identity. While a true solution to this erosion of reality will only come from the work of God in our hearts and minds, it is clear in the short term that state statute is in desperate need of specific definitions. This will protect women and girls in private spaces and athletics, preserve the coherence of vital statistics records, honor mothers, and otherwise just make sense. House Bill 421 provides these definitions.

As concisely summarized by Representative Young, the bill recognizes that the dividing line between the sexes is that males produce sperm and females produce eggs. For a given individual, this may be happening at present, in the past, or in the future, or it would be so if not for a developmental or genetic anomaly or historical accident. Rare disorders of sexual development are real and are to be intelligently and compassionately taken into account in specific policies, but this bill’s purpose is to lay the groundwork of definitions, not determine specific applications. As for definitions, we live in a fallen world in which sometimes someone is born with only one leg or has to have one amputated, but this in no way changes the fact that humans are bipeds. House Bill 421 puts the definition of male and female into statute and clarifies that these are the two sexes, which are biological. It also defines “Boy” as a minor human male, “Girl” as a minor human female, “Father” as a male parent, and “Mother” as a female parent. Additionally, to avoid the prevalent nonsense of sex being construed as one’s own belief about one’s gender, the bill clarifies that, while gender and sex are synonymous in Idaho Code, this should not be conflated with vague ideas like gender identity, an internal sense of gender, experienced gender, gender expression, or gender role.

House Bill 421 gives us a starting point for clearer conversations on these far-reaching matters. As of this writing, it has passed the House, and I will work toward its progression in Senate State Affairs and on the Senate Floor. Another way you can stand for God’s truth and beauty is by making your voice heard on House Concurrent Resolution 35, which seeks to establish a Traditional Family Values Month to celebrate the transformative power and beauty of God’s design for the family.

Please pray for God’s guidance for our legislators as we finalize the session.

In His Service,

Ben Toews

Idaho State Senator – District 4