{"id":106078,"date":"2016-03-23T19:59:34","date_gmt":"2016-03-24T01:59:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/transgender-birth-certificate-dies-in-legislature\/"},"modified":"2016-03-23T19:59:34","modified_gmt":"2016-03-24T01:59:34","slug":"transgender-birth-certificate-dies-in-legislature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/transgender-birth-certificate-dies-in-legislature\/","title":{"rendered":"Transgender birth certificate dies in Legislature"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A
A Colorado Senate committee on Monday killed a bill that would have made it easier for transgender people to change the gender on their birth certificates.<\/span>Getty Images\/iStockphoto<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

DENVER \u2013 Colorado Republican state lawmakers on Monday killed this year\u2019s effort to make it easier for transgender people to change the gender marking on their birth certificates.<\/p>\n

It was the second time the Senate State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee killed the measure in as many years on party-line votes.<\/p>\n

Both bills died after receiving support in the Democrat-controlled House.<\/p>\n

Sen. Jessie Ulibarri, D-Westminster, who sponsored the bill, was in tears at the end of the hearing, acknowledging that the bill had little chance of earning Republican support.<\/p>\n

The process to change gender on birth certificates in Colorado requires sex-reassignment surgery to qualify. The legislation would have included hormone treatment, among other \u201ctransitional\u201d options.<\/p>\n

Few arguments have been made against the bill in the two years, with most of the testimony coming from supporters. Concerns have been raised, however, about the birth certificate change leading to instances of fraud.<\/p>\n

But advocates point to studies that show that transgender people are subject to more harassment and bullying, resulting in high rates of depression and thoughts of suicide.<\/p>\n

Ulibarri sobbed over testimony provided by a 10-year-old named Jude, who identified herself as a transgender girl. It was Jude\u2019s birthday on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are people. We all are different and can do anything,\u201d Jude said.<\/p>\n

Her testimony brought back painful recollections for Ulibarri of his own past grappling with his sexuality as a gay man. At one point, he had to briefly pause, requesting water as he fought for composure.<\/p>\n

For his confirmation name as a child, Ulibarri chose Jude Thaddeus, the \u201cMiraculous Saint,\u201d who is the Catholic patron saint of \u201clost causes.\u201d He said he contemplated suicide and worried that the committee was sending the wrong message to Jude and others.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got a lot of messages from society that I wasn\u2019t valued, that someone like me wasn\u2019t worth life,\u201d Ulibarri said.<\/p>\n

Advocates for the bill said the measure was about eliminating barriers so transgender people can accurately reflect their gender. They vowed to continue the fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not here to commit fraud,\u201d said Dane Stephenson, a married transgender man, who added that he can\u2019t afford expensive sex-reassignment surgery. \u201cWe just want to make ourselves whole.\u201d<\/p>\n

pmarcus@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Emotional hearing brings lawmaker to tears<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":106079,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[94,13,1765,265],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-106078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-colorado-state-government","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-lgbt","tag-politics"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106078\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106078"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=106078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}