Governor Kate Brown signed into law Oregon’s first standalone transgender equity law Wednesday.
House bill 2673A gives a safer, faster, and more private process option for transgender Oregonians to update their name and gender on their Oregon birth certificates.
Brown says as a fundamental human right, government has no right business dictating personal identity. She says institutional bias and discrimination is being broken down, to create a state that embraces and supports the diversity of communities, so that every Oregonian has an opportunity to thrive.
Oregon has won several administrative policy changes to lower discrimination, including transgender-inclusive Medicaid; an insurance bulletin that prohibits health care discrimination by private insurance carriers; and education guidelines that protect transgender youth in schools statewide.
The new law goes into effect January 1st, 2018. California is the only other state to have a similar administrative option.