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The D.C. Council is poised to approve a bill that wil bring the District in line with 23 states and the federal government in protecting the identities of transgender individuals who undergo gender transitions. With unanimous votes yesterday by the Committee on Health and today by the Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety, the JaParker Deoni Jones Birth Certificate Equality Amendment Act will go before the full Council for a final vote before the legislature breaks for the summer.
Under current D.C. law, people who have their names legally changed are required to publish notices in a local newspaper once a week for three weeks after the procedure. But for transgender people, this requirement can lead to an inadvertent outing.
The bill approved by the committees this week allows transgender people to forgo that step. Instead, people who go through gender reassignments would have their original birth certificates sealed and be issued new birth certificates with the proper gender marker with the sealed affidavit of a medical doctor. The bill includes people who switch genders with or without surgery; currently, only people who undergo expensive sexual reassignment procedures are eligible to have the gender markers on their birth certificates switched.
Deoni Jones was a transgender woman killed in February 2012 near a Metrobus stop at East Capitol and Sycamore Streets NE.
Andy Bowen, a social policy organizer at the DC Trans Coalition who helped organize the bill, says that while the D.C. government trails other governments when it comes to birth certificate rules, it is still relatively ahead on matters that affect transgender residents.
“It re-affirms what I’ve always known about D.C.,” she says. “On this it is following precedent set by other governments. But … it is a sure sign that they are continuing its legacy of respect of trans people and all people.”
The bill is almost certain not to face any opposition when it goes before the full D.C. Council. While introduced Feb. 19 by David Catania (I-At Large), the bill was co-sponsored by the other 12 members of the Council. The Council’s next legislative meeting is scheduled for July 9.
