TO: Members of the Wisconsin State Legislature
FROM: Representative Lindee Brill
Senator Steve Nass
DATE: May 20, 2025
RE: Co-sponsorship of LRB-2544/1 & LRB-3299/1; relating to: changing an individual’s sex on a birth certificate
DEADLINE: May 29, 2025
Sex-based distinctions and protections are a critical element of Wisconsin’s civil rights infrastructure. These protections depend on a consistent and reliable instrument of identification. Almost all meaningful forms of identification ultimately derive their veracity from a birth certificate. Therefore, any sex-based distinction or protection made in state or federal law or policy ultimately relies for its consistent effectiveness on the reliability and biological veracity of birth certificates.
Sex-based protections defend men and women against unjust discrimination and ensure equal access to employment, healthcare, education, and sports. They provide the legal groundwork upon which single-sex spaces like women’s shelters, including shelters for victims of sexual assault or domestic violence, are built.
Fluidity and imprecision of language with regard to sex introduce ambiguities into law and policy which put women at risk. In keeping with federal policy regarding distinctions of sex in reference to sex-protective laws expressed in Executive Order 14168, this bill will prohibit the modification of a birth certificate to indicate any sex other than the registrant’s biological sex at birth.
If you would like to co-sponsor this legislation, please reply to this email or contact Representative Brill’s office (608)-237-9127 or Senator Nass’ office (608)-266-2635 by May 29. Co-sponsors will be added to both the Assembly and Senate bills unless otherwise requested.
Analysis by the Legislative Reference Bureau
Current law allows for changes to an individual’s sex on a birth record due to a surgical sex-change procedure or to correct an error on a birth record, subject to certain requirements. Under this bill, an individual’s sex on a birth record may not be changed due to a surgical sex-change procedure. Moreover, the bill prohibits any person from changing an individual’s sex on a birth record to a sex other than the individual’s biological sex. The bill also prohibits a court from ordering a change to an individual’s sex on a birth record to a sex other than the individual’s biological sex. Under the bill, “biological sex” means the biological state of being male or female based on sex chromosomes.
