AUSTIN, Texas — A Texas lawmaker has filed a bill that, if approved, would stop people from changing their gender on a birth certificate with only a few exceptions.
State Sen. Mayes Middleton, R-Galveston, wrote House Bill 406 back in November. It would limit the reasons in which a person can legally change the gender of their birth certificate.
The bill requires that biological sex of a child be determined by sex organs, chromosomes or their internal body profile.
Under this proposal, the state or local registrar or other person who issues a birth certificate as well as a court order cannot change the document unless:
- The certificate corrects a clerical error on the original birth certificate
- The original document does not include the person’s biological sex
- The person had a “atypical and ambiguous” sex organs or chromosomes for either male or female and their sex was determined later
- The change corrects the biological sex information listed as male or female on the original by listing the determined sex as the other biological sex
- The change completes the biological sex information not previously listed on an original birth certificate by listing the person’s determined sex
So far, only one other senator has co-sponsored the bill, Sen. Bob Hall, who represents all of Kaufman, Navarro, Rockwall, and Van Zandt counties, and portions of Collin, Dallas, and Ellis counties.
On Monday, the Senate State Affairs Committee heard testimony about the bill, but as of now, HB 406 remains pending in committee.
If approved by the House, the Senate and Gov. Greg Abbott, the bill would go into effect on Sept. 1 this year. The legislation would require the executive commissioner of the Health and Human Services Commission to adopt rules necessary to implement the changes in law.