An Act to add sex and gender as protected classes for crime prosecutions

This bill (S 1246) would amend state criminal statutes to explicitly include "sex" and "gender" as protected classes when determining bias motivation in crime prosecutions. It directly affects prosecutors and courts, who would consider whether a crime was motivated by bias against someone's sex or gender identity. The key mechanism is adding these categories to existing protections (like race or religion) in criminal code provisions related to bias-motivated offenses. This would expand the circumstances under which prosecutors can charge bias-motivated crimes, requiring courts to evaluate sex and gender as potential motivating factors.