Full text
Defining SEX Act
The Heritage Foundation
A base definition of sex for state law. Pair it with the other bills on this page instead of inventing a second definition.
Resources
Model Legislation
Templates state lawmakers and allies can adapt.
Start here
Define sex in state law
Sex definitions are the base text. Heritage’s Defining SEX Act and Independent Women’s definition act are nearly the same. Pick one base definition and reuse it in every other bill. Independent Women’s January 2025 Stand with Women Act is the all-in-one bill (definitions, single-sex spaces, and sex-based data). Their 2022 Women’s Bill of Rights was an earlier short version — for new drafting, use the 2025 models.
Full text
An Act to Define Sex-Based Terms
Independent Women’s Voice / Independent Women’s Law Center (January 2025)
Independent Women’s standalone definition act. Near-duplicate of Heritage’s Defining SEX Act — pick one base and reuse it.
Full text
Stand with Women Act
Independent Women’s Voice / Independent Women’s Law Center (January 2025)
The current omnibus: definitions, single-sex spaces, and sex-based data. Facility sections are also listed under bathrooms, shelters, and prisons.
Medicine
Children and medical transition
Models that limit puberty blockers, hormones, and surgeries for minors — plus related protections for detransitioners.
Full text
The JUST FACTs Act
Do No Harm (January 2023)
Blocks puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries for minors; also covers school secrecy, public funding, liability insurance, and a private cause of action.
Full text
Detransitioner Bill of Rights
Do No Harm (November 28, 2023)
Informed consent, care, insurance, public reporting, birth-record restoration, and lawsuit provisions for people who detransition.
Summary only
Save Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act
Family Research Council (April 2022)
A policy brief on banning puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and transition surgeries for minors. Useful background — not a full bill template you can introduce as-is.
Summary only
Counseling Bans (State Policy Brief)
Family Research Council (~2022)
Background on counseling bans that outlaw talk therapy for gender dysphoria or unwanted same-sex attraction, and on counseling-protection bills. Not a full bill template.
Enacted example
Arkansas SAFE Act (HB 1570, 2021)
Enacted Arkansas law
Arkansas’s 2021 law that bans puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and gender-transition surgery for minors. Other states often use this enacted law as a working example.
Campaign (no public bill text)
Help Not Harm
Family Policy Alliance
Model language to ban puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and gender-transition surgery for people under 18, with liability for providers who violate it. Family Policy Alliance says versions of these protections are now law in 27 states. The full model bill text is not posted online — contact Family Policy Alliance for the drafting language, or contact us and we can help connect you.
Schools and parents
Parents, names, pronouns, and the classroom
School rules on names, pronouns, and what parents get told — plus curriculum and classroom models.
Full text
The Given Name Act
The Heritage Foundation
Staff use the birth-certificate name and sex-based pronouns unless parents consent in writing; protects staff who refuse opposite-sex pronouns.
Enacted example
Parental Rights in Education Act (Florida HB 1557 / Chapter 2022-22)
Florida (2022)
Florida’s 2022 parent-notice law. Schools must tell parents about changes in a student’s mental, emotional, or physical health or well-being. Districts may not keep secret policies that hide that from parents. It also limited classroom teaching on sexual orientation and gender identity in the early grades.
Enacted example
HB 1069 (Chapter 2023-105)
Florida (2023)
Follow-up to Parental Rights in Education. Bans classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity from pre-K through grade 8 (with narrow exceptions). In grades 9–12, any such instruction must meet state age-appropriate standards. Also defines sex in the education code, sets rules on personal titles and pronouns, and tightens how schools handle contested library and classroom materials.
Enacted / official policy
Rule 6A-10.081 (Principles of Professional Conduct)
Florida State Board of Education (effective August 22, 2023)
Educator-conduct rule that puts the classroom limits into force for licensed teachers: no intentional SOGI classroom instruction in pre-K through grade 8 (except where statute requires it); grades 9–12 only if required by state standards or in an opt-out health lesson. Also ties educator discipline to sex-separated facilities and personal-title/pronoun rules. Implements HB 1069 for the classroom side.
Think-tank text
A Model for School Practices Relating to Sexuality and Gender
Manhattan Institute (Christopher F. Rufo, February 7, 2023)
Curriculum, pronouns, and secret social transition: bars secret social transition, preferred names and pronouns, and gender instruction without parental consent; requires curriculum transparency. Think-tank text, not a statute.
Think-tank text
A Model for Transparency in School Training and Curriculum
Manhattan Institute (Rufo, Copland, Ketcham, December 1, 2021)
Broader school-board template: public posting of staff-training and student instructional materials, with optional scope covering sex, gender, and related topics. Companion to the February 2023 model.
Full text
JUST FACTs Act, Section 3
Do No Harm (January 2023)
Public school transparency. Same PDF as the JUST FACTs Act.
Full text
Model School Board Policy on Parental Rights in Education and Safety, Privacy, and Respect for All Students in the District
The Heritage Foundation (January 6, 2025)
School-board policy on parental rights, safety, privacy, and respect for students in the district.
Board pledge
Pledge to Parents
Independent Women’s Voice (2025)
Short 10-point school-board commitment: academic focus; no coercing kids to hide information from parents; sex-based sports, bathrooms, locker rooms, and overnight stays; parental consent for medical, social, and mental interventions and extracurriculars; no compelled speech.
Full text
Model Policies #32, #33, #42, and #46
Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL)
Downloadable board policies: parental notification and consent for names and pronouns (#32); staff use of student pronouns and conscience (#33); sex-separate restrooms and locker rooms (#42); K–12 athletics separated by sex (#46).
Full text
Model Policy for Transgender Students
School Boards for Academic Excellence (SBAE, August 2024)
Compact district policy: biological sex definitions; parental notification for counseling about gender; legal name and sex on official records; names and pronouns tied to the official record unless an eligible student or parent authorizes otherwise; facilities and athletics by sex.
Full text
Defining Abuse Child Protection Act
The Heritage Foundation
Raising a child consistent with sex is not abuse and is not grounds to remove a child or deny foster or adoptive placement.
Sports
Girls’ and women’s sports
Keep girls’ and women’s teams, leagues, and titles for females.
Full text
Equal Athletic Opportunities Act
Independent Women’s Voice / Independent Women’s Law Center (January 2025)
An Act to Protect Equal Athletic Opportunities for Women and Girls. Defines sex and reserves female athletic events for females.
Enacted example
Fairness in Women’s Sports Act (Idaho HB 500, 2020)
Enacted Idaho law (2020)
This is the text most states have copied. Later “Save Girls’ Sports” and “Fairness in Women’s Sports” bills follow this approach.
Campaign (no public bill text)
Save Girls’ Sports
Family Policy Alliance
A campaign to keep girls’ and women’s sports female-only. Family Policy Alliance says versions of these protections are law in many states. The full model bill text is not posted online — use their campaign page to contact them for the drafting language, or contact us and we can help connect you.
Single-sex spaces
Bathrooms, locker rooms, shelters, and prisons
Sex-separate bathrooms, locker rooms, shelters, and custody settings.
Full text
The Women’s Safety and Protection Act
Independent Women’s Voice / Independent Women’s Law Center (January 2025)
Sex-separates correctional facilities, juvenile detention, domestic-violence shelters, locker rooms, and school overnight trips, with single-occupancy alternatives.
Full text
Stand with Women Act — facility sections
Independent Women’s Voice / Independent Women’s Law Center (January 2025)
Shelter, school restroom, and prison and juvenile-detention sections in the omnibus PDF.
School-board policy
Student Physical Privacy Policy
Alliance Defending Freedom (April 22, 2016)
A school-board policy, not a state statute. Sex-designates multi-user restrooms, locker rooms, and showers.
Records
Records and insurance
Keep sex accurate on IDs, records, data, and insurance rules.
Full text
Vital and State Records Integrity Act
The Heritage Foundation (June 2025)
Keeps sex on birth certificates and other vital and state records as male or female as recorded at birth, with narrow corrections only (clerical error, disorder of sex development, or restoring a record that was wrongly changed).
Full text
An Act to Ensure the Accuracy of Sex-Based Statistics
Independent Women’s Voice / Independent Women’s Law Center (January 2025)
Agencies and schools that collect sex data record each person as male or female as observed or clinically verified at birth.
Full text
Detransitioner Bill of Rights — records and insurance
Do No Harm (November 28, 2023)
Legal restoration and insurance sections. Same PDF as the medical card.
Full text
JUST FACTs Act — funding and insurance
Do No Harm (January 2023)
Funding and insurance sections. Same PDF as the medical card.
Federal models
Federal Title IX (not state model statutes)
Federal study models on sports, privacy, and sex under Title IX — not state statutes.
Study resource
RESPECT Title IX Act
Defense of Freedom Institute (May 2025)
Defines sex biologically; keeps males out of women’s sports and sex-separated facilities; protects parental rights; restores campus due process; bars agencies from rewriting Title IX by regulation. Draft text, not enacted law, and not a request that any legislature enact it.
Study resource
Model Title IX Regulations
Defense of Freedom Institute (December 2024)
Agency-level draft that addresses gender-identity rules and covers women’s sports, privacy, parental rights, speech, and due process. Not enacted law, and not a request that any agency adopt it.
Related reading on this site: puberty blockers, U.S. and World Progress, and subscribe.