Todd Garrity recalled the day he stood in a public courtroom, surrounded by whispering, disgusted strangers, and told a judge the gender listed on his birth certificate did not match who he was in his heart.

The process of getting a court order certifying that the transgender man had undergone gender reassignment surgery took more than a year. Even then, his new birth certificate included a notation that it was amended, leaving him open to uncomfortable questions should he present it to open a bank account or get a job.

Legislation passed 8-5 by a House committee Thursday would ease that process, no longer requiring that transgender people have surgery or go before a judge to change the gender on their birth certificates. Instead, people would need only a note from a medical or mental health professional stating they were undergoing surgical, hormonal or other treatment.

It means that someone could have the physical body parts of one gender but have a birth certificate with the opposite gender.

In an emotional hearing that choked up lawmakers and some audience members, seven Democrats and one Republican sided with numerous transgender people and parents of transgender children despite objections from opponents concerned about rewriting “historical and biological facts.”

The bill would put Colorado law in line with federal requirements for changing passports and with modern medical understanding that not all transgender people want or can have gender reassignment surgery. Some cannot afford it, some are not healthy enough and some consider hormone therapy or presenting themselves as another gender to be their transition.

“Times have evolved. We have evolved,” said Rep. Daneya Esgar, D-Pueblo.

Committee member Rep. Gordon Klingenschmitt, R-Colorado Springs, attempted to gut the legislation and make it a crime for someone to change their birth certificate without an operation. The bill, he said, could lead to cases of child abuse and fraud, saying people with female birth certificates and male body parts could use locker rooms with women and children, or that people could marry someone without knowing their spouse used to be another gender.

“Not fraud. Not pretense. But who they are,” said bill sponsor Rep. Dominick Moreno, D-Commerce City.

Erik Kluzek said he never understood transgender people until his child asked to become a girl at age 16. “It’s not about her pretending to be female; it’s because she feels that way in the core of her soul,” he said.

The “birth certificate modernization act” also requires the state registrar to issue a new birth certificate instead of an amended one. And the legislation would keep sealed the original birth certificate.

“This has been an eye-opening day,” said Lois Landgraf of Fountain, the only Republican to vote for the bill.

If it passes the House, the bill is expected to have a tougher time in the Republican-controlled Senate.

Jennifer Brown: 303-954-1593, jenbrown@denverpost.com or twitter.com/jbrowndpost