Massachusetts will have a non-binary option on birth certificates for newborn babies starting next year.
That’s because state Representative Mindy Domb (D-Amherst) filed a successful amendment (Amendment 1380) to the fiscal year 2025 state budget bill signed into law by Governor Maura Healey last month that made this change, among several others.
Nonbinary is a term for people who don’t exclusively identify as male or female, but instead see their gender as a mix of both, neither, or something entirely different.
Domb, state Representative Marjorie Decker (D-Cambridge), and state senator Jo Comerford (D-Northampton) touted several changes made to state policy in a joint press release:
Included in the policy provisions of the budget are six sections pertaining to gender identity on state records. These sections allow for a nonbinary option on drivers licenses, enable parents and caregivers to choose a non-binary option on their child’s birth certificate, allow adults to change the gender on their birth certificate, allow partners to change the gender on their marriage license, direct state agencies that serve youth in care to develop and disseminate materials sharing information on these options with the youth they serve, and require the state to develop a plan to provide a non-binary option on all state forms where a gender choice is required.
The amendment gives all state agencies a January 1, 2025, deadline to submit their plans to the Massachusetts legislature to provide a gender option other than male or female on all state records.
The three lawmakers expressed excitement that the state will affirm gender identities for newborn babies other than male and female.
Domb said the legislation represents the state’s commitment to letting people pick whichever gender they want.
“The inclusion of this policy demonstrates our commonwealth’s commitment to acceptance and our recognition that gender identity is personal,” Domb said in the written statement. “I want to acknowledge the Massachusetts Commission on LGBTQ Youth and thank them for their insights, which have made this a better policy. I’m very grateful to the Governor, House and Senate leadership, and the budget conferees for their support. This effort also benefited from an incredibly strong and determined legislative partnership, with Senator Comerford and my House colleague, Rep. Marjorie Decker. Senator Comerford and I have filed this bill since we were first sworn into office in 2019. Her leadership and engagement has been invaluable to its success.”
Comerford expressed a similar sentiment.
“People know what gender they are,” Comerford said in the release. “This policy affirms the ability of people to choose a non-binary gender option on state documents and forms, which would align the Commonwealth with many other states that have adopted this designation I am grateful to Governor Healey, her Administration, and to House and Senate leadership for their support of this very necessary change. I am also very thankful to Representative Mindy Domb and Representative Marjorie Decker for their steadfast leadership on this issue — and so many other LGBTQ+ priorities.”
Decker said the change is about respecting human rights.
“I am so proud that our bill H.3017 was included in the FY25 budget,” Decker said in the press release. “This inclusion now ensures that the dignity of every person who identifies as nonbinary is honored and consistently and accurately recognized legally in all state government documents. By offering an X gender marker option, we are affirming both the human rights of all Massachusetts residents, as well as a respect for everyone’s identity.”
As the lawmakers point out, they had filed bills in the past attempting to make these changes to state law. The Massachusetts Senate unanimously passed the bill 39-0 in September 2021, as NewBostonPost previously reported, but the Massachusetts House of Representatives never took it up for a vote that session.
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