New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican presidential contender, this week vetoed legislation that would have eased restrictions for changing gender markers on birth certificates.
The state’s current law mandates proof of gender-reassignment surgery before a birth certificate can be changed.
The New Jersey legislature in June approved a bill that would have required proof of clinical treatment for gender transition, but not surgery, in order for the gender marker to be updated. Nine other states plus Washington, D.C., have enacted similar laws.
The legislature passed a similar bill last year, but Christie also vetoed that measure.
“Gov. Christie has elected to allow his state’s birth-certificate laws to deteriorate despite the overwhelming majority of support from the legislature to modernize,” said Arli Christian, state policy counsel for National Center for Transgender Equality. “His veto keeps in place outdated, burdensome requirements that make it incredibly difficult for transgender people to get birth certificates that match who they are.”
Garden State Equality executive director Andrea Bowen called the surgery requirement “absurd and gruesome” but also “out of line with what the federal government does for U.S. passports and Social Security records and what New Jersey already does for its drivers’ licenses.”
Like the stipulations of the vetoed bill, those departments rely on verification from a medical professional.
“What the governor has done is nonsensical, cruel and, if you care at all about good government processes, illogical,” Bowen said.