A Republican lawmaker in Utah proposed and subsequently defended a bill that prevents transgender, non-binary, and genderqueer people from changing their gender on official documents.

According to the Salt Lake Tribune, Rep. Merrill Nelson, plans to introduce House Bill 153 at the start of the new legislative session beginning next week.

Titled the Utah Vital Statistics Act Amendment, the bill aims to change ‘provisions regarding the completion and amendment of a birth certificate’.

The bill amends several sections of Utah law, numerous of which pertain to people changing their gender on their birth certificate.

What does this bill prevent?

Per the bill’s section on amending the Utah Osteopathic Medical Practice Act, Nelson added in a section defining ‘sex’.

It reads: ‘”Sex” means male or female, the innate and immutable characteristics established at conception and that can be confirmed before or at birth.’

The section on birth certificates details registering a birth certificate and amending one. It both retracts previous language and adds in new language.

Firstly, it adds in new explicit rules for registering a birth certificate, including listing the child’s sex only as ‘male’ or ‘female’. If doctors cannot ‘factually determine’ the baby’s sex, it will read ‘undetermined’.

For amending a birth certificate, the bill crosses out a person changing their sex. Instead, it states a person can only change their name or ‘correct a mistake of fact’.

Nelson’s defense

Nelson provided an email statement regarding his bill. In it, he said: ‘HB 153 is based on the scientific and medical fact that an individual’s sex is determined at conception by chromosomal make-up and is not subject to change or self-determination later in life.’

Republican Senator Ralph Okerlund, the Senate sponsor of the bill, also defended it.

‘It’s a vital statistic, one that’s created when a person is born,’ he said. ‘What is a physical fact at birth, gender, is put on the birth certificate and should stay at all times of life.’

ACLU Utah, however, called it ‘unconstitutional’.

Once introduced, legislators will debate and vote on the bill. Constituents can also call their representatives to voice their opinion on the bill.

See also

Utah senator blocks lesbian attorney’s nomination for employment commission

University of Utah restrooms audited by students, LGBT Center for private spaces

How leaving the Mormon Church helped this non-binary singer find their true self