BILL ANALYSIS �
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 1577|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 1577
Author: Atkins (D), et al.
Amended: 6/3/14 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE HEALTH COMMITTEE : 7-1, 6/11/14
AYES: Hernandez, Beall, De Le�n, DeSaulnier, Evans, Monning,
Wolk
NOES: Nielsen
NO VOTE RECORDED: Morrell
SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE : 6-1, 6/24/14
AYES: Jackson, Corbett, Lara, Leno, Monning, Vidak
NOES: Anderson
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 62-5, 5/15/14 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Certificates of death: gender identity
SOURCE : Equality California
Transgender Law Center
DIGEST : This bill requires a person completing a death
certificate to record the decedent's sex to reflect the
decedent's gender identity, as specified.
ANALYSIS :
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Existing law:
1.Requires each death to be registered with the local registrar
of births and deaths in the district in which the death was
officially pronounced or the body was found within eight
calendar days after the death and before the disposition of
the remains.
2.Requires a funeral director to prepare the certificate and
register it with the local registrar and to obtain the
required information, other than medical and health data, from
the person or source best qualified supply this information.
3.Requires the medical and health section data and the time of
death to be completed by the physician and surgeon last in
attendance, or in the case of a patient in a skilled nursing
or intermediate care facility, by a licensed physician
assistant legally authorized to certify and attest to the
facts, or in certain cases, to be completed by the county
coroner.
4.Specifies that a certificate of death shall contain certain
information concerning the decedent necessary to establish the
fact of the death, including but not limited to the decedents
full name, sex, color or race, marital status, name of spouse,
date of birth and age at death, birthplace, usual residence,
and occupation.
This bill:
1.Requires a person completing a death certificate to record the
decedent's sex to reflect the decedent's gender identity.
Requires the decedent's gender identity to be reported by the
informant, unless the person completing the certificate is
presented with a birth certificate, a driver's license, a
social security record, a court order approving a name or
gender change, a passport, an advanced health care directive,
or proof of clinical treatment for gender transition, in which
case the person completing the certificate is required to
record the decedent's sex as that which corresponds to the
decedent's gender identity as indicated in that document.
2.Requires, if none of these documents are presented and the
person with the right, or a majority of persons who have equal
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rights, to control the disposition of the remains, as
specified, is in disagreement with the gender identity
reported by the informant, the gender identity of the decedent
recorded on the death certificate to be as reported by that
person or majority of persons.
3.Permits, if a document specified in #1 above is not presented
and a majority of persons who have equal rights to control the
disposition of the remains, as specified, do not agree with
the gender identity of the decedent as reported by the
informant, any one of those persons to file a petition, in the
superior court in the county in which the decedent resided at
the time of his or her death, or in which the remains are
located, naming as a party to the action those persons who
otherwise have equal rights to control the disposition and
seeking an order of the court determining, as appropriate, who
among those parties is to determine the gender identity of the
decedent.
4.Prohibits a person completing the death certificate in
compliance with #1 above from being liable for any damages or
costs arising from claims related to the sex of the decedent
as entered on the death certificate.
5.Requires a person completing the death certificate to comply
with the data and certification requirements by using the
information available to him/her prior to the deadlines for
completion specified in existing law.
6.Establishes the above provisions as the Respect After Death
Act.
Background
The University of California, Berkeley Gender Equity Resource
Center defines transgender in the following manner: Transgender
(sometimes shortened to trans or TG) people are those whose
psychological self (gender identity) differs from the social
expectations for the physical sex they were born with. To
understand this, one must understand the difference between
biological sex, which is one's body (genitals, chromosomes,
etc.), and social gender, which refers to levels of masculinity
and femininity. Often, society conflates sex and gender,
viewing them as the same thing. But gender and sex are not the
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same thing. Transgender people are those whose psychological
self (gender identity) differs from the social expectations for
the physical sex they were born with. For example, a female
with a masculine gender identity or who identifies as a man. A
University of California, Los Angeles Williams Institute study
from 2008 estimates that 0.3% of adults are transgender.
Reporting and use of data . The Department of Public Health
(DPH) uses the data collected through death certificates for
public health research and planning. According to DPH, this
bill would not change the way the State Registrar records the
death certificate or reports public health data, as the
certificate cannot be altered after registration by the local
registrar (i.e., information that is listed on the death record
is required to be reported). According to DPH, this bill will
also not affect the way causes of death are reported in data.
The coding of causes of death for California vital records is
provided by the National Centers for Health Statistics (NCHS).
In coding causes of death, NCHS adheres to the World Health
Organization Nomenclature Regulations specified in the most
recent revision of the International Statistical Classification
of Diseases and Related Health Problems. In general, pursuant
to the ICD 10 Mortality Manual 2a 2014, Section N. Sex and Age
Limitations, if the underlying cause of death appears to be
inconsistent with the gender, the accuracy of the underlying
cause of death is re-examined and the gender is verified. In
addition, verification of the inconsistency can be accomplished
through examination of name, occupation, and other items on the
certificate. If the gender is determined to be incorrect, the
data record is corrected. If the gender entry is correct but
not consistent with the underlying cause of death, the death is
coded to "Other ill-defined and unspecified causes of
mortality." Sometimes on a case-by-case basis, inconsistencies
in the underlying cause of death and gender are coded as
"unspecified" underlying causes of death, e.g., "unspecified
cancer," or they may be coded to the secondary cause of death if
it is consistent with the gender, e.g., a primary cause of death
for a male with ovarian cancer that has metastasized to the
kidneys may be coded as kidney cancer.
Comments
According to the author's office, the Respect After Death Act
will ensure that transgender individuals who have memorialized
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their gender identity on their legal documents can be recognized
properly at death. Additionally, AB 1577 will provide
protection from civil suits for funeral directors and coroners
who follow the letter of the law. Once we are deceased, we are
often at the mercy of others to treat us with dignity. The very
least we can do is ensure individuals are given basic human
dignity by honoring their authentic selves when they pass so
that more pain is not inflicted upon grieving loved ones or the
community.
Prior Legislation
AB 1121 (Atkins, Chapter 651, Statutes of 2013) creates, as of
July 1, 2014, an optional administrative procedure for a
transgender person born in California to amend gender and name
on his/her birth certificate without first obtaining a court
order.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
SUPPORT : (Verified 8/5/14)
Equality California (co-source)
Transgender Law Center (co-source)
AFSCME, AFL-CIO
California Communities United Institute
City and County of San Francisco
Civil Justice Association of California
OPPOSITION : (Verified 8/5/14)
Capitol Resource Family Impact
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : The Transgender Law Center and Equality
California, the co-sponsors of this bill write that current
California law governing the completion of death certificates
fails to provide sufficient direction to the authorities, such
as funeral directors and coroners who are responsible for
determining a person's gender designation after death. In some
cases, this lack of clarity has resulted in the issuance of a
death certificate that inaccurately reflects a transgender
person's gender. When a transgender person is ascribed the
incorrect gender, whether on official documents or in the media,
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it is disrespectful to the memory of the deceased person and can
be deeply painful and stigmatizing to grieving friends, family,
and fellow community members. The Civil Justice Association of
California supports this bill because it grants civil immunity
to coroners and funeral home directors when they record the sex
of a transgendered person and will allow those professionals to
do their jobs without fear of a meritless lawsuit.
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION : Capitol Resource Family Impact
opposes this bill because it would give an acquaintance the
legal authority to change the legal gender of a person after
death, and they believe if a person chose to not take the legal
steps to change his/her gender during his/her lifetime, no
individual should have the right to make that change for that
person after their death.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 62-5, 5/15/14
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Ammiano, Bloom, Bocanegra, Bonilla,
Bonta, Bradford, Brown, Buchanan, Ian Calderon, Campos, Chau,
Ch�vez, Chesbro, Cooley, Dababneh, Daly, Dickinson, Eggman,
Fong, Frazier, Garcia, Gatto, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gorell,
Gray, Hagman, Hall, Roger Hern�ndez, Holden, Jones-Sawyer,
Levine, Linder, Lowenthal, Maienschein, Medina, Mullin,
Muratsuchi, Nazarian, Nestande, Pan, Perea, John A. P�rez, V.
Manuel P�rez, Quirk, Quirk-Silva, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas,
Rodriguez, Salas, Skinner, Stone, Ting, Wagner, Weber,
Wieckowski, Williams, Yamada, Atkins
NOES: Bigelow, Donnelly, Beth Gaines, Grove, Wilk
NO VOTE RECORDED: Allen, Conway, Dahle, Fox, Harkey, Jones,
Logue, Mansoor, Melendez, Olsen, Patterson, Waldron, Vacancy
JL:e 8/5/14 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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