2,044 events on record Subscribe September 10, 2026
Standing Record home The Standing Record A non-partisan record of US democratic norms —
and the events that erode them.

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum signed HB1474, codifying a binary "sex" definition that bars LGBTQ+ discrimination claims

On May 8, 2023, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum signed House Bill 1474, which the state's 68th Legislative Assembly passed to amend the North Dakota Century Code's master definitions section with binary statutory definitions of "female," "male," and "sex." The law defines sex by "nonambiguous sex organs, chromosomes, or endogenous hormone profiles at birth" and conforms four other 2023 bills to the same wording. Advocates said the definitions bar sexual-orientation and gender-identity discrimination claims in employment, housing, and public accommodations.

Jurisdiction
North Dakota
Location
Bismarck, North Dakota

Abuses documented

Actors

On May 8, 2023, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum signed House Bill 1474 into law, adding binary statutory definitions of "female," "male," and "sex" to the North Dakota Century Code's master, code-wide definitions section at N.D.C.C. section 1-01-49. The measure defines "sex" as an individual's "biological state" as either female or male, "based on nonambiguous sex organs, chromosomes, or endogenous hormone profiles at birth," and conforms four other bills enacted the same session — HB1254, HB1489, HB1249, and HB1139 — to the identical wording.

The 68th Legislative Assembly passed the bill through a conference committee; the House gave final approval 75-15 on April 25 and the Senate 42-4 on April 27, before Burgum signed it on May 8 and it was filed with the Secretary of State on May 9. Because the definitions sit in the code's general definitions section, they carry across the areas of state law that rely on the term "sex."

The Human Rights Campaign, which condemned the signing, said the law "erases LGBTQ+ people from multiple areas of state law" and would prohibit residents from bringing claims of sexual-orientation or gender-identity discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations, and would also affect intersex people. The organization counted HB1474 among eleven anti-LGBTQ+ measures Burgum signed in 2023.

Why we recorded this

Equal protection requires that the law treat people the same regardless of who they are. North Dakota enacted a statute defining "sex," "female," and "male" in strictly binary biological terms in the state code's master definitions section, a change that bars transgender, nonbinary, and intersex residents from bringing sexual-orientation or gender-identity discrimination claims in employment, housing, and public accommodations. Writing a group out of the legal categories through which anti-discrimination protections operate removes an available civil-rights remedy for those residents and narrows who the law recognizes as eligible to seek redress.

Sources

  1. HB 1474 - Actions — North Dakota Legislative Branch primary accessed July 17, 2026
  2. HB 1474 - Overview — North Dakota Legislative Branch primary accessed July 17, 2026
  3. HB 1474 - Enrolled Bill (23.1055.04000) — North Dakota Legislative Branch primary accessed July 17, 2026
  4. Human Rights Campaign: “Instead of Helping North Dakotans to ‘Find the Good Life,’ Governor Burgum Decided to Sign Away the Ability for Transgender People to Safely and Openly Exist” — Human Rights Campaign secondary accessed July 17, 2026

See also