This past Tuesday, Kevin Stitt, the Republican Governor of Oklahoma officially signed a bill into law that bans the use of nonbinary on the state’s birth certificate as a gender option.
Titled SB 1100, the new law seeks to require that all birth certificates be marked as only male or female as gender options.
The direct text of the new bill reads that it “requires the biological sex designation on a birth certificate to be either male or female and prohibits a nonbinary or any symbol representing a nonbinary designation.”
SB 1100 also bars people from the gender marked at birth on their birth certificates.
“People are free to believe whatever they want about their identity, but science has determined people are either biologically male or female at birth,” stated one Oklahoma Republican state Rep, Sheila Dills, who is the sponsor of the bill in the House, in a release shortly after the bill made it through the House last week.
“We want clarity and truth on official state documents. Information should be based on established medical fact and not an ever-changing social dialogue,” she stated.
This new law crops up just after the signing of an executive order that was signed by Stitt back in November of 2021 that forced the Oklahoma Health Department to halt the changing and issuing of any birth certificates sporting nonbinary gender options.
The Department of Health for the state had, back in May of 2021, reached an agreement that allowed a person to change the gender identity on their official birth certificate to nonbinary.
This new bill is a stark contrast to the growing trend from various other states that have made it legal for a person to designate a gender other than female or male on their official birth certificate. The National Center for Transgender Equality has stated that there are currently 15 states that allow such a choice, and the 16th, Vermont, is slated to join the list as soon as a new law goes into effect in July.
As of this month, U.S. citizens will be able to select “X” as their gender on their official passport instead of choosing female or male.
U.S. special diplomatic envoy for LGBTQ rights, Jessica Stern, claimed that human “do not always fit within a male or female category around the world,” as part of her announcement concerning the rollout of the new “X” category.
“The addition of a third gender marker propels the U.S. forward toward ensuring that our administrative systems account for the diversity of gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics among U.S. citizens,” she stated.
It has also been reported that the TSA will be updating its policies concerning its gender markers for its “TSA PreCheck” system.
As stated by the agency, “Beginning in April 2022, a TSA PreCheck® applicant can select the gender they would like saved in their TSA PreCheck® record simply by selecting ‘M’ or ‘F’ during the enrollment / renewal process. The gender selected does not need to match the gender on supporting documentation, such as birth certificate, passport, or state-issued ID.”