NEWS / Florida stops amending gender on birth certificates for transgender individuals

The Florida Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, is no longer amending gender markers on the birth certificates of transgender individuals. The agency claims it is basing this decision on existing statutes, although it had previously been changing the gender marker for transgender Floridians for over 10 years.

The Bureau of Vital Statistics states that presenting legal name change documents as well as paperwork confirming clinical gender transition treatment is not sufficient for the purposes of changing the gender of an individual on their birth certificate.

According to the 19th News, the Bureau began rejecting applications for gender marker amendments in 2023, despite previously allowing them under the administration of Republican Governors Rick Scott and Ron DeSantis (during the latter’s first term). The change appears to have come about around the time DeSantis started his second term.

Denial letters emphasize that gender markers on birth certificates can only be modified if there is a misstatement, omission, or error on the original birth record. More controversially, some letters appear to require “documentary evidence established prior to the child’s seventh birthday,” while others indicate that the evidence would have had to have come from before the individual’s 18th birthday.

At the same time, no major legislative changes have been implemented, and the new policy appears to originate from executive discretion. Republican lawmakers in the State Assembly had previously proposed legislation to prohibit gender markers from being changed on birth certificates entirely and to have the gender marker on state identification card to match the individual’s gender at birth. Both legislative initiatives failed.

Despite this, the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles implemented a new state policy that stopped allowing gender marker updates on driver’s licenses and state identification cards in January 2024. Just like with the Bureau of Vital Statistics, the move appears to have been prompted by an executive policy change from the DeSantis administration rather than any actual changes to the law.

The move effectively puts Florida on par with 5 other states that prohibit gender marker changes on birth certificates—Kansas, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Tennessee. Florida is already among the 3 states that effectively prohibit gender marker changes on driver licenses and state identification cards, the other 2 being Kansas and Tennessee.