Representative Andy Hopper played biologist on the House floor, claiming with certainty that there are only two sexes during a debate in early April.
He made this point when presenting a budget amendment that would reduce government funding to the University of Texas at Austin in part because some programs “deny the unchangeable biological reality that there are only two sexes.” In the ensuing debate, State Representative Lauren Ashley Simmons, a Houston Democrat, asked him where intersex people fit into his statement.
His argument quickly fell apart as he admitted he didn’t know what intersex meant, but doubled down anyway: “Those intersex individuals are still XX or XY, so you can’t change that.”
