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March 27, 2017 04:37 PM UTC

Senate Republicans Kill Transgender Birth Certificate Bill--Again

  • 65 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

A press release from One Colorado, the state’s principal LGBT advocacy organization, condemns the Colorado Senate GOP majority for killing off a bill to make it easier for transgender citizens to change their birth certificates to reflect their identity–for the third straight year in a row:

Today, the Colorado Senate State, Veterans, and Military Affairs Committee voted to defeat, House Bill 1122, the Birth Certificate Modernization Act — a bill that would bring Colorado law in line with federal policy for transgender Coloradans who want to update the gender on their birth certificate — for the third year in a row. One Colorado released the following statement from Executive Director Daniel Ramos on the defeat of this bill on a party-line vote.

“Today, the Republicans on the State, Veterans, and Military Affairs Committee of the Colorado Senate had the chance to, yet again, do the right thing for transgender Coloradans. The Birth Certificate Modernization Act would have greatly impacted transgender Coloradans’ lives in making the process less burdensome to update the gender on their birth certificate. For the third year in a row, legislators have chosen politics over people’s lives.

“Again, we heard from numerous transgender Coloradans, their families, and experts demonstrating that this bill would not only make their lives easier, but would also save lives. Removing this specific barrier would have significantly reduced the stress and trauma a person goes through in the process of updating their gender. As well as it would reduce long-term mental health outcomes — such as depression, anxiety, and even suicidality.

“This much-needed legislation would simply have brought Colorado law in line with existing policies at the federal level, and in doing so would have protected the privacy of transgender Coloradans and protected them from discrimination.

“This is the second pro-LGBTQ legislation that has been introduced and killed in the Senate within a week and it’s clear members of Senate Leadership do not have the freedoms of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer Coloradans in mind. We want to thank Senator Dominick Moreno and Representative Daneya Esgar for sponsoring House Bill 1122, and State Senators Stephen Fenberg and Lois Court for their votes today in support of transgender Coloradans and their families.”

The perennial battle over this legislation has become a major flashpoint between conservative Republicans in Colorado versus LGBT advocates and allies. There’s no good reason to oppose making it a more straightforward process to update one’s birth certificate to match gender identity–various “concerns” about identity theft and other imagined problems have been shown to be unfounded. Which doesn’t stop opponents from recycling them year after year, a thin veneer over unvarnished ugliness:

If it seems to you like this was an embarrassing moment for Colorado Senate Republicans, that’s because it was. The arguments against allowing transgender people to update their birth certificates don’t stand up to scrutiny–leaving opponents with little to work with other than deeply offensive tropes about transgender people, a fact that becomes painfully obvious during the course of these hearings. In the end, the only reason to oppose this legislation is if you just don’t like transgender people–and don’t want to make their lives any easier.

There’s a word that describes this kind of person. And after three years, it’s time to use it.

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65 thoughts on “Senate Republicans Kill Transgender Birth Certificate Bill–Again”

  1. This is the kind of stuff Democrats hang their hats on at the state legislature? 
    Even as a progressive I find this embarressing.
    A person is born biologically either as a male or female — a birth certificate is a legal document of fact — and it should remain as such no matter what is realized in the future. 

    1. Um, no. First, birth certificates are commonly revised after adoptions.

      Fundamentally, though, it is simply not true that "a person is born biologically either as a male or female." See, for example, http://www.isna.org/faq/frequency.

      Finally, why is it a political liability for Democrats to favor rights, but it is not a political liability for Republicans to deny rights?

       

       

       

      1. Well, 99 percent plus are born male or female, by the numbers you cite. Old time.  It's one thing to update for adoption and if, after reaching adulthood, a trans person wants to note he or she no longer identifies with birth sex, fine.  But don't banish the birth identification down the Orwellian memory hole alongside the Soviet enclyclopedia.

            1. Here's why it's important.

              If you look at that link from the AFSP, you see suicide attempts for trans people from 42 – 70% of the trans population. That's not even counting the violence and assault from the rest of the world directed at trans people, which is considerable and awful.

              Something that helps trans folk with self-acceptance and makes legal obstacles easier to negotiate would be well worth it.

              Not seeing any chandelier swinging, nor rage, just a question.

               

              2. If you want to amend a birth certificate to say the holder later identified as a different sex, do it, but retain the original as well.  Facts are sacred things.  If someone was born in juarez, would we change that to omaha?  Could we add ten years to our age to qualify sooner for medicare?  Changing facts for political purposes is something Stalinists and Trumpers do.  But facts is facts.  

            2. I asked a pretty simple question, and I'm not really susceptible to your brand of needling, so you may as well save your energy.  

              So far, your whole argument is based on a nonexistent slippery slope.  

                    1. Sure.  You think you're the only person to call me a simpleton?  I've been called worse by better. 

                      And I’d still love to know why someone else’s birth certificate is your business. But I’m realizing that’s something you’re not willing to address.

                    2. I'm curious as to what other areas you want to want to banish fact in favor of political correctness.  I'm sure it was a long list.

                    3. Still not answering the question.  You're not nearly the straight shooter you claim to be, are you?

        3. V – I'd make a farm analogy with this one:  If it was discovered there was a flaw in the legal description of your farm land dating back to its Homestead Certificate, you'd want the record corrected, no? 

              1. Current law apparently says you can't change the certificate unless you chop that politically incorrect plumbing off (ouch)  

                I'm saying no surgery required, just a notarized oath.  But that means amending the certificate to say the citizen now presents as female .  The original findings should remain on the historical record, however.  Otherwise we mock the truth.  And for what end?  If you change political registration to Democrat, you're not allowed to erase the history that for 32 years you were a Republican, as I was.

                1. I'm in Curmy's camp on this one re: I don't think it's any of my business what anothers birth certificate says.  There is, in my extended family, a member dealing with the transgender issue. I'm slightly removed from that situation but now have a lot of empathy for those who know they are someone else "on the inside." I have zero interest in anything that makes them feel less human. 

                  1. If repealing the surgical requirement makes your friend less miserable, I'm all for it.  But how does noting the simple fact that a change has been made dehumanize your friend?  It has to be difficult for you to deal with this stuff as a christian.  As an agnostic, I just accept that sometimes the dice come up in an odd pattern.

                    1. I'm Catholic, V – but of the 'Papa Frank' flavor.  I have zero problems with transgenders, teh ghey, divorced, etc. (all the classes of people a real Catholic is supposed to hate).  

                      If I found out Moddy was a transgender who was secretly attracted to KornJolio and that Pear was their gay love child (which would explain a lot of things) I'd still not give a rats ass.  

                    2. Actually, in my world, learning that gay men can have a love child would raise a lot more questions than it would answer.  But as a good catholic, maybe that virgin birth thing would cover it at your end.  

                    3. We have to keep our spiritual humor, V.  "Homosexuality is unnatural…" says the book where snakes talk, apples set an eternal curse, people come back from the dead, a guy walks on water, and a virgin has a baby! 

                2. If I'm reading cook's link correctly, the original birth certificate is "impounded" but not destroyed. The new birth certificate is an "amended" copy. This should answer your objection about preserving the historical record in case of extreme need.

                  Presumably, courts or police would have to show cause to see an impounded certificate, if they had to.

                  1. I have no problem with that, but curmy apparently finds it the soul of fascism.  I find it odd that so many gloss over the sex change surgery issue to howl about political correctness.  

                    1. And Voyageur apparently finds other people's birth certificates relative to their "plumbing" to be his business.  He still won't explain why, though. 

                       

                    2. Hey, curmy, if you want to amend your birth certificate to show you were born an idiot, you have my permission.  

                    3. I'm really sorry your Dad didn't give you the attention you're still seeking, but it's not my place to fill that void. 

  2. Horseshit, I.D. Birth certificates are often amended. Most often to substitute adoptive parents for the birth parents. Changing gender on a passport is not trivial. One needs a letter from an M.D. stating that the applicant has taken irreversible steps to change their gender, They also need State Department form DS-11 (which is quite lengthy), and a not insignificant application fee. Not to mention that committing fraud with a passport is a federal crime with a guarantee of a nice long stay in a federal penitentiary attached to it.

    1. Wonder how IndependentProgressive would have reacted years ago when Dr. Stanley Biber made Mt. San Rafael Hospital in Trinidad (Colo.) into the sex change capitol of the USA.

  3. Actually, curmy, you're the one dodging the issue.  When is it ok to change fact and history in pursuit of a political objective?  Do the Stalinist rules banish all bourgeois facts?  Do we strip Bruce Jenner of all the titles he won as a man because he, much later, identified as a woman?  Or do we accept he was born male, lived male, triumphed as a male, later became female, and celebrate her later life without trying to put her beginnings down the memory hole.  Is truth ever important to you?  Or is it just a bourgeois concept?

    1. Wow.  That's a whole lot of caterwauling to attempt to deflect from one question; Why is it your business whether someone else changes their birth certificate?

      Bourgeois? Seriously? Wow. I remember my Poli-Sci class, too.  What a rush, huh? 

      1. Why is it your business?  You're fanatical on the subject.  So, do we put bruce down the memory hole or not?  Wheaties boxes want to know.

         

        To clarify, existing law apparently requires sex change surgery to amend a birth certificate.  That is dumb.  A simple notarized oath from the citizen should suffice.  All I'm saying is that the certificate note that the original declaration not be obliterated.   At birth, you were declared male (or female)   On such and such a date you affirmed you now present to the world as female.  Fine.  No, you don'yt need to chop off your working parts.  ( Caitlin Jenner didn't and can still father a child if she wants to.)  But let the record reflect the progression as well as the current presentation.

        1. It's not my business.  That's why I don't care if someone changes their birth certificate.   See how easy that was?   It requires very little effort to not give a shit about what someone else does with their life.  I just don't know why you care about it so much, and I think, at this point, we never will.       

          1. You rage on and on and on about why you don't care.  Heaven knows how wild you'd be if you did care.

            Do you have something to share with the class?

            1. Where do you see rage?  Are you just fantasizing that you're actually getting the responses you're trying to elicit from people?  I can't get emotionally invested in what someone else thinks or doesn't think, or whether they don't answer a question.  I just asked, and you refused to answer.  That's your business, too, I guess.  

                1. So…your obsession with someone else's birth certificate meeting your criteria goes along with your normal style of "above it all" detachment, but my not caring about it is angry?   I'm not going to hold it against you if you have a problem reading other people's emotions, but it's a rather common psychological problem these days; it doesn't make you one of the X-Men. 

                   

                    1. Yeah, you know what? I'll rescind that.  I do care about this issue.  I care that people who aren't doing anything that affects you should be left alone to do it.   

                      Why do you care? 

    2. Dear Asshole,

      A birth certificate is not a sacred relic; it is simply a means of identification. Change in parents' made due to adoption? Amend it. Change in gender identification? Amend it.

      Same as a driver's license. Change your name? Amend it. Change your address? Amend it. Get a motorcycle endorsement? Amend it.

      Same thing applies to passports, social security cards, and every other single identification document.

      Until it involves your birth certificate:  Fuck off. This isn't your issue.

                  1. Hmmm…Preoccupation with other people's genders, and the old ""Democrat-slavery" line? 

                    Maybe Voyageur hasn't fully transitioned from being a Republican asshole. 

                    1. Curmudgeon: I don't consider myself as an "ass hole," thank you kindly. I do wonder, however, why my fellow Republicans have such a focus on bathroom matters, female private parts, etc. Got to be some of that good old time patriarchal fundamentalist Christianity coming through. And, too bad that VG can't answer a simple question; he dodges as good as our President.

                    2. Plenty of Republicans aren't assholes, CHB, just as plenty of Democrats are.   I really don't think of you in the same frame as the current GOP.  I think of you as a Conservative, because I remember when Conservative and Liberal were separate from Republican and Democrat.  

                      And, yes, Vger is a spineless twerp. 

    1. cook, the link you posted doesn't work. Here's another, from the same site, on why amending birth certificates is critical for legal identification (passports, driver's licenses, etc).

      Just as an illustration: I changed my name legally long ago (not for gender noncomformity, – I like being a woman –  just for general orneriness).

      I applied for a passport and found that I would have to go back to the original court where I got my name legally changed decades ago, to get a notarized copy. This is Homeland Security new law (since the Patriot Act).  So I can't get a passport until I am able to physically spend a day at the courthouse, sift through the microfiche to find my name change proceeding, get a notarized copy, and re-apply for a passport. Apparently, I used up all of my notarized name change orders for various documents long ago, and copies won't fly.

      Just an example of why it's important to get all of one's legal documents in order for the various challenges and adventures life has to offer. HB1122 would have made that easier, or possible, for trans people to do that. Now it's another obstacle.

      1. Dang it! That link worked just before I posted it. Thanks for finding the good one, MJ. Karen got her passport updated with the marker changed in the nick of time before the Screaming Yam took over. I don't know if the State Department has changed the rule from the Obama administration, but I didn't care to find out  I nagged her incessantly until she filed the paperwork. Now, she doesn't need her birth certificate (cheeky, V) . 

         

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