Birth certificate gender change wins initial House approval

A bill to allow transgender people to change the gender listings on their birth certificates without undergoing gender reassignment surgery passed its first test Thursday in the Colorado Legislature.

The bill would also allow people to have their original birth certificates sealed, instead of having them marked to say that the gender has been changed.

The sponsor of the bill says that transgender people lose privacy rights under current birth certificate law, which doesn’t allow the gender assignment at birth to be erased.

The hearing brought some uncomfortable moments when a conservative Republican said that changing gender on a birth certificate without surgery is “fraud.”

The bill passed the House Health Insurance & Environment Committee 8-5 and now heads to the full House.