Legislative Update

Gender issues

Filed Under: Civil

The Senate Health and Provider Services Committee heard SB 182 on gender issues authored by Sen. Brown and Sen. Johnson.  The bill:

  • Defines “female”, “male”, “gender”, and “sex” for all Indiana statutes.
  • Provides that the department of correction shall assign an offender, including a delinquent offender, to a facility or program that is based on the offender’s biological sex at birth.
  • Clarifies that a local health officer shall mark the sex of an individual as male or female on a birth certificate.
  • Provides that the Indiana department of health may make an addition to a birth certificate, for purposes of paternity, in certain situations.
  • Provides the circumstances for when the sex designation on a birth certificate can be amended including a medically verifiable disorder of sex development or a correction of a birth certificate that is voluntarily amended to record a sex other than the sex of the individual as previously recorded at birth.

The Committee amended the bill by consent to:

  • Address clerical and grammatical issues. 
  • Require public schools, including charter schools, and state educational institutions to designate a multiple occupancy restroom or changing area as follows: (1) for the exclusive use of the male sex; (2) for the exclusive use of the female sex.
  • Provide, with exceptions, that an individual shall only use a multiple occupancy restroom or changing area that is designated for the sex that is the individual’s sex.
  • Establish a civil action for a violation of these provisions.
  • Prohibit public schools, including charter schools, and state educational institutions from requiring a student to share sleeping quarters with a member of the opposite sex, unless the individual who is a member of the opposite sex is a family member.
  • Establish a civil action for a violation of these provisions.

Alliance Defending Freedom, Hamilton County Sheriff, Office of the Indiana Attorney General, and several members of the public testified in support of the bill. GenderNexus, Indiana Youth Group, MADVoters, and several members of the public testified in opposition.  The amended bill passed 9-3.

Read the bill at: https://iga.in.gov/legislative/2026/bills/senate/182