Matt Lesser

Sen. Lesser-Introduced Legislation to
Protect Intersex Persons Passes State Senate

HARTFORD, CT – Today, legislation state Senator Matt Lesser (D-Middletown) introduced to protect intersex persons from discrimination on the basis of sex and to allow them to identify as intersex on birth certificates passed the state Senate by a unanimous vote. Sen. Lesser said he is thrilled this legislation passed the state Senate.

“I’m proud Connecticut will be the first state to explicitly protect intersex children and adults,” said Sen. Lesser. “I am also grateful that my colleagues in the state Senate passed this legislation unanimously.”

Under this legislation, intersex means a condition in which a person is born with a reproductive or sexual anatomy or chromosome pattern that does not fit the typical definition of male or female. According to InterACT, an organization that uses legal strategies to advocate for the human rights of the intersex community, it is estimated that one in 2,000 people are intersex.

Senate Bill 388 (SB 388) “An Act Concerning Intersex Persons” will establish an eight-member task force to study the circumstances in which surgery related to an individual’s intersex status is medically necessary. The task force must meet no later than 60 days after passage of this legislation. The task force will report its findings and recommendations to the Public Health Committee by January 1, 2020. The task force will be appointed by the state Senate’s president pro tempore, the state House of Representatives speaker, and the Senate and House majority and minority leaders.

In addition to appointing the task force, SB 388 specifies that “discrimination on the basis of sex” will include discrimination related to intersex characteristics, for purposes of anti-discrimination laws under the jurisdiction of the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities. This legislation will also allow an intersex applicant to identify as such on a driver’s license or non-driver identification card, allow parents to list a child’s intersex status on their birth certificate, allow intersex adults to amend their birth certificate to reflect that status and requires public agencies that require people to identify their sex to accept as proof of intersex identification an identity card, driver’s license, or birth certificate, and specify the person’s sex as intersex on any documentation listing an individual’s sex.

This legislation has received bipartisan support and passed the Public Health Committee by a unanimous vote on April 1. The bill now awaits action in the House and a signature by the governor. If enacted, this law goes into effect on October 1, 2019.