TRENTON — A state Senate panel today approved a bill that would require the state Health Department to issue a new birth certificate for people who have gone through the clinical process of altering their gender.



State law since 1984 has required the state Health Department to issue a new birth certificate to people who have undergone gender reassignment surgery.

Not every transgender person undergoes surgery because of the expense and the health risks involved with a major surgery, said Joseph Vitale, chairman of the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee, (D-Middlesex), who sponsored the bill.



Some opt for hormone replacement therapy, supporters of the bill said.



This bill would require a new birth record for people who have undergone "clinically appropriate treatment for the purpose of gender transition, based on contemporary medical standards, or that the person has an intersex condition." The person's licensed health care provider would have to sign a form vouching the treatment had taken place, according to the bill.



People who identify themselves as intersex are born with anatomy that is not medically identified as standard male or female, according to the Intersex Society of North America.



Vitale said he sponsored the bill (S2786) on behalf of a constituent because "the world is changing."



"Birth certificates always have been a means of how we traditionally identify a person. In the transgender community, it doesn't reflect who they are mentally spiritually and in every other way but physically," Vitale said. "They don't argue what they were then, but I am not that person now."



Jeanne LoCicero, deputy Legal Director of the ACLU of New Jersey, said a young transgender man inquired about changing his birth certificate.



"I had to advise him he could not, because, although he had undergone clinically appropriate treatment, he had not undergone surgery. As a 20-something looking for a job, he could not afford to do that," LoCicero said.



"He had concerns about being outed for having to present inconsistent documents," said LoCicero, who noted transgender people often face "severe and latent discrimination" and "the risk of violence." He obtained a passport instead because the U.S. State Department does not require transgender people to show proof of the surgery, she said



Sen. Sam Thompson (R-Middlesex) said he would not support the bill, although he stressed he supports transgender people and their right to live how they want.



"My concern is a birth certificate is an historical document," Thompson said. "If you want a document saying you are a lady today, I am 100 percent for it."



The Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee approved the bill by a 6-2 vote with one abstention.

The Assembly passed the bill by a 43-27 vote in June.

RELATED COVERAGE

• As midnight strikes, same-sex couples wed across New Jersey

• Judge dismisses lawsuit against N.J. gay-to-straight conversion therapy ban

More Politics

FOLLOW STAR-LEDGER POLITICS: TWITTER • FACEBOOK • GOOGLE+