Today the law to change your birth certificate without needing to have surgery went into effect. CTAC was one of the organizations that lead the effort to pass the law. Here is the history of how the coalition came together to pass the law.
For the next six days I will be writing about the history of bill H.B.7006 An Act Concerning Birth Certificates.
For me it all started at Frist Event in Massachusetts in 2014, I was talking to Mara Keisling, the Executive Director of the National Center for Transgender Equality and the topic of birth certificates came up. We both agreed that it was worth a try in Connecticut and she said that if we decided to propose the legislation contact NCTE and they could help.
In August I posted something about needing to change the birth certificates law in Connecticut on my Facebook page and Robin from True Colors thought it was a good idea. We exchanged emails and I met with her intern in early September to hash out our thoughts. At our next meeting we contacted NCTE and talked about getting started on the bill, it was decided to bring in other organizations into the discussion.
So late in September I contacted many of the core organizations that worked on the anti-discrimination legislation back in 2011. It seems like everyone had the same idea, it was time for the legislation.
We then had our first meeting at the lobbyist office in November and at the meeting we had people from True Colors, GLAD, ACLU, Connecticut Women’s Education and Legal Fund (CWEALF), Equality Federation, and I represented CTAC and on the phone were Planned Parenthood and NCTE.
At the meeting we discussed various strategies to chance the law on birth certificate; the three options that we discussed were to make the change by regulation, add an amendment to an existing bill, or have a stand along bill. Each option had its own drawbacks; the regulation was the easiest but also the easiest to change back by another governor, an amendment would also be risky because it could be dropped from a bill as easy as it can be added to a bill and the last option was to pass a new law and that would be the hardest to do.
We also discussed how to make sure that death certificates reflect the proper gender.
At the next meeting in December we were joined by a professor from Quinnipiac University School of Law who is on the Board of Directors at CWEALF. At the meeting the lawyer from GLAD provided a rough draft of the proposed law and NCTE provided a draft of the talking point for the bill. Also the lawyers from GLAD and NCTE discussed if any changes were need for making sure that the death certificates listed the correct gender and the consensus was that the death certificate should track the birth certificate. Therefore no changes need to be made.
In addition, the governor’s office was in favor of the bill. The Department of Public Health had some concerns but eventually went along with the proposed changes to the bill.
Now all we had to do was wait for the session to begin.
Reprinted from Diana’s Little Corner of the Nutmeg State by permission.
Diana is the Executive Director of CTAC
For me it all started at Frist Event in Massachusetts in 2014, I was talking to Mara Keisling, the Executive Director of the National Center for Transgender Equality and the topic of birth certificates came up. We both agreed that it was worth a try in Connecticut and she said that if we decided to propose the legislation contact NCTE and they could help.
In August I posted something about needing to change the birth certificates law in Connecticut on my Facebook page and Robin from True Colors thought it was a good idea. We exchanged emails and I met with her intern in early September to hash out our thoughts. At our next meeting we contacted NCTE and talked about getting started on the bill, it was decided to bring in other organizations into the discussion.
So late in September I contacted many of the core organizations that worked on the anti-discrimination legislation back in 2011. It seems like everyone had the same idea, it was time for the legislation.
We then had our first meeting at the lobbyist office in November and at the meeting we had people from True Colors, GLAD, ACLU, Connecticut Women’s Education and Legal Fund (CWEALF), Equality Federation, and I represented CTAC and on the phone were Planned Parenthood and NCTE.
At the meeting we discussed various strategies to chance the law on birth certificate; the three options that we discussed were to make the change by regulation, add an amendment to an existing bill, or have a stand along bill. Each option had its own drawbacks; the regulation was the easiest but also the easiest to change back by another governor, an amendment would also be risky because it could be dropped from a bill as easy as it can be added to a bill and the last option was to pass a new law and that would be the hardest to do.
We also discussed how to make sure that death certificates reflect the proper gender.
At the next meeting in December we were joined by a professor from Quinnipiac University School of Law who is on the Board of Directors at CWEALF. At the meeting the lawyer from GLAD provided a rough draft of the proposed law and NCTE provided a draft of the talking point for the bill. Also the lawyers from GLAD and NCTE discussed if any changes were need for making sure that the death certificates listed the correct gender and the consensus was that the death certificate should track the birth certificate. Therefore no changes need to be made.
In addition, the governor’s office was in favor of the bill. The Department of Public Health had some concerns but eventually went along with the proposed changes to the bill.
Now all we had to do was wait for the session to begin.
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GLAD has a birth certificate tool kit to help you with the paperwork.
