Legal Documents Change Bans

Across the country, hundreds of anti-trans bills are in process in state legislatures. “Legal documents change bans” prevent a transgender or nonbinary person from changing the gender marker—and sometimes their name—on their birth certificate and other legal documents. You need legal documentation like a birth certificate to get a job, to buy a car or a house, to board a cruise ship, to get admitted to a school, and even to get a bus pass or a library card. Bills that would bar someone from updating their legal documents, like their birth certificate, means that a transgender person could lose out on all those parts of life.

You can view Equality Federation’s up-to-the-minute tracking of legislation affecting LGBTQ+ people.

ACTION REQUEST:

• Discuss the issues using the talking points below
• Build a Coalition
• Learn how to share your story and even submit testimony
• Reach out to Sr PR/Press Manager Laura McGinnis for Support in Discussing With The Press

TALKING POINTS:

• You need legal documentation like a birth certificate to get a job, to buy a car or a house, to board a cruise ship, to get admitted to a school, and even to get a bus pass or a library card. Bills that would bar someone from updating their legal documents, like their birth certificate, means that a transgender person could lose out on all those parts of life.
• Drivers in this state are required to update their driver’s license every few years because the law already recognizes that people change, and those changes can be dramatic.
• We change address, our hair, our body changes, our name can change, and we age. Transgender people are no different. If we don’t allow trans people to change their birth certificate, then they will never match their identification, which doesn’t help anyone.