New Jersey Governor Chris Christie on
Monday vetoed a bipartisan bill that sought to ease access to birth
certificates for transgender people.
The bill sought to allow transgender
people who have not undergone gender reassignment surgery to seek
changes to their birth certificates.
Under current New Jersey law, surgery
is a requirement for people seeking to change their birth
certificates.
Christie, also a candidate for the
Republican presidential nomination, said that he vetoed the bill
because it raises “security concerns and legal uncertainties.”
“Birth certificates unlock access to
many of our nation and State's critical and protected benefits such
as passports, driver's licenses, and social services, as well as
other important security-dependent allowances,” Christie wrote in a
veto message. “Accordingly, I remain committed to the principle
that efforts to significantly alter State law concerning the issuance
of vital records that have the potential to create legal
uncertainties should be closely scrutinized and sparingly approved.”
Christie vetoed a similar bill last
year.
The National Center for Transgender
Equality (NCTE), which lobbied for passage of the bill, said that
Christie's veto kept in place an outdated requirement.
“For the second time, Governor Chris
Christie has elected to allow his state's birth certificate laws to
deteriorate despite the overwhelming majority of support from the New
Jersey legislature to modernize,” the group's Arli Christian said
in a statement. “His veto on this bill keeps in place outdated and
burdensome requirements that make it incredibly difficult for
transgender people to get birth certificates that match who they are.
Birth Certificates play an enormous role in transgender people's
ability to live their life as the person that they are. And Governor
Christie has – for a second time – vetoed legislation denying
that for transgender New Jerseyans.”