After five long years - thousands of emails and phone calls to legislators, hundreds of constituent visits, and dozens of testimonies provided, HB19-1039 Jude's Law goes into effect today! Thank you to everyone who helped make this possible, including all of the volunteers, testifiers, bill sponsors, and coalition and community partners over the years.
Identity documents (IDs) are needed for many activities of daily life—working, enrolling in school, opening bank accounts, voting, traveling, and accessing government resources and institutions. However, the name and gender change process is complicated and can be expensive. Many state and federal governments have intrusive and burdensome requirements—such as proof of surgery or court orders—that make it, at times, impossible for transgender people to update their IDs. To have one’s ID out of alignment with one’s gender identity exposes a transgender person to a range of negative outcomes, from denial of employment, housing, health care, and public benefits to harassment and even physical violence.
Sponsored by the former LGBT Caucus co-chairs Representative Daneya Esgar, D-Pueblo, and Senator Dominick Moreno, D-Commerce City, Jude’s Law will cut through the red tape for transgender and nonbinary Coloradans as they update the gender on their birth certificates to match who they are. Coloradans will be able to update their gender on their birth certificate to M, F, or X — without surgery, a doctor’s note, or court order. This bill removes both the surgery requirement and court order requirement, allowing transgender and nonbinary people the ability to self-identify on their identification documents. The bill also removes the publication requirement for a name change in order to reflect one’s gender identity. A new birth certificate will be issued instead of an amended birth certificate when updating gender. Colorado is the third state in the country (including California and Oregon) to have nonbinary gender options for both driver’s licenses and birth certificates.
For more information, please visit One Colorado’s website here.
