Utah lawmaker drafts legislation stopping transgender people from changing birth certificates
Republican Merrill Nelson says it's 'fiction' to change sex on a birth certificate
By Steve Brown
Words: Steve Brown
A Utah lawmaker has drafted a legislation stopping transgender people from changing their birth certificates.
The new House Bill 153 – which was filed to the state’s House of Representatives by Republican Merrill Nelson – says a person’s sex is ‘the innate and immutable characteristics established at conception’.
If the bill is passed, the new law would stop trans people asking a judge for permission to change their official birth gender later in life, politics website Utah Policy reported.
Nelson said: “It is a fiction to change the sex designation on a birth certificate – a vital record – based on fluctuating gender.
“While gender identification is subjective, a person’s sex, as male or female, is determined objectively by science and medicine.
“The birth certificate records ‘sex’ not ‘gender identity’. Therefore, gender identity should not be used to change the sex designation on the birth certificate.”
However, the new bill has been challenged by Troy Williams – the executive director of Equality Utah – who says it “clearly aimed at hurting” the transgender community.
Williams said: “This bill is clearly aimed at hurting the Utah transgender community.”