ARIZONA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Fifty-sixth Legislature Second Regular Session
	Senate: HHS DP 4-3-0-0 | 3^rd Read 16-13-1-0-0

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SB 1628: sex-based terms; laws; rules; regulations

Sponsor: Senator Kerr, LD 25

Committee on Judiciary

Overview

Entitled the Arizona Women's Bill of Rights, requires any policy, program, rule or law that prohibits sex discrimination to also prohibit the unfair treatment of a female or male in relation to a similarly situated member of the opposite sex. Makes other related changes to statute, including allowing state entities to provide separate single-sex environments for males or females in certain circumstances; defining sex-based terms; requiring certain terminology changes in statute and other legal authorities; and imposing reporting requirements on certain state entities.

History

Federal law prohibits discrimination on the basis of certain characteristics, including sex-based discrimination. For example, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin. Additionally, the Equal Pay Act of 1963 protects men and women who perform equal work in the same establishment from sex-based discrimination in the payment of wages or benefits.

Relatedly, Arizona law prohibits various forms of sex-based discrimination. For example, statute deems it an unlawful employment practice for an employer to do either of the following:

1) fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual or otherwise discriminate against any individual with respect to the individual's compensation, terms, conditions or privileges of employment because of the individual's race, color, religion, sex, age or national origin or on the basis of disability;

2) limit, segregate or classify employees or applicants for employment in any way that would deprive or tend to deprive any individual of employment opportunities or otherwise adversely affect the individual's status as an employee, because of the individual's race, color, religion, sex, age or national origin or on the basis of disability (A.R.S. § 41-1463).

Provisions

1. Requires any policy, program, rule or law that prohibits sex discrimination to also prohibit the unfair treatment of a female or male in relation to a similarly situated member of the opposite sex. (Sec. 1)

2. Instructs the state of Arizona to replace the stand-alone term gender with sex in all laws, rules, publications, orders, actions, programs, policies and signage, and to revise these authorities to use the term sex in each place that the stand-alone term gender is used only when updates are otherwise necessary. (Sec. 1)

3. Allows the state of Arizona and its political subdivisions to provide a separate single-sex environment—including in athletics, living facilities, locker rooms, bathrooms, domestic violence shelters and sexual assault crises centers—for a male or female if the sexes are not similarly situated, particularly with respect to biology. (Sec. 1)

4. Requires state entities—including any public school or public school district or the state of Arizona and any agency, department or political subdivision thereof—that collects vital statistics related to sex to comply with state or federal antidiscrimination laws or to gather accurate public health, crime, economic or other date to identify each natural person who is part of the collected data set as either male or female. (Sec. 1)

5. Specifies that the above reporting requirement does not do either of the following:

a) require the collection of data regarding sex unless otherwise required by law;

b) prevent the collection of additional data points other than biological sex. (Sec. 1)

6. Defines the following terms for purposes of all statutes, administrative rules, regulations and public policies adopted by the state of Arizona or its political subdivisions:

a) boy;

b) father;

c) female;

d) girl;

e) male;

f) man;

g) mother; and

h) sex. (Sec. 1)

7. Specifies that equal, with respect to equality of the sexes, does not mean same or identical. (Sec. 1)

8. Includes a statement of purpose and severability clause. (Sec. 2, 3)

9. Entitles this measure as the Arizona Women's Bill of Rights. (Sec. 4)

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13.                   SB 1628

14. Initials JL Page 0 Judiciary

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