Transgender bill takes another step toward becoming law in Colorado

A bill that would make it easier to change the gender on a birth certificate passed through a Colorado House committee for the fifth time Wednesday, and Democrats’ recent takeover of Senate control gives the measure its best chance yet to become law.

“It is my hope that this is the last time these brave Coloradans need to come testify,” bill sponsor Daneya Esgar, a Pueblo Democrat, said at the end of public testimony in the House Health & Insurance Committee.

House Bill 19-1039 would remove three state requirements for transgender Coloradans who want to change their names

and/or birth certificates. First, it would take out the requirement that transgender Coloradans provide proof that they surgically changed their gender before being allowed to receive an amended birth certificate. Second, it would let people obtain new birth certificates rather than amended ones. And third, it would strike the public notice provision for transgender name changes.

Minors would need signed documentation from a parent and medical provider.

All but two people who testified were in favor of the bill. Transgender people and their parents spoke about what the changes would mean when it comes to getting a job, registering for school, renting a home or registering to vote.

“For half my life now, this small piece of paper has loomed over me,” Lukas O’Bryne, 30, told the committee.

He can’t afford the surgeries Colorado requires, and “after the process of changing my name and all of its embarrassments, I’d rather pretend I don’t have a birth certificate at all.”

Jude, a 12-year-old girl, has testified before committees in both the House and Senate four years in a row in hopes of passing this bill. The Denver Post isn’t using her last name at the family’s request.

Both Jude and her mother, Jenna, asked the committee to consider what it’s like to have to register for school with a birth certificate that has a different name and gender.

“That’s emotionally damaging,” Jenna said, adding that it can out kids to students and teachers and open the door to bullying.

Rep. Mark Baisley, RRoxborough Park, commended Jude and her mother but said he had reservations about the bill. A driver’s license is a document that can be updated throughout your life, he said. “The birth certificate is the more historical document.”

Baisley said the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s decision late last year to drop the surgery requirement for giving out new birth certificates appeared in his mind to have already taken care of this issue. CDPHE’s new rules go into effect this month — the result of a lawsuit.

Esgar said CDPHE’s rule change was a welcome shift in policy, but it could just as easily be reversed unless state law changes. Anna Staver: 303-954-1739, astaver@denverpost.com or @AnnaStaver