North Dakota Gov. Burgum signed HB1297, barring transgender residents from changing birth-certificate gender markers

On May 8, 2023, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum signed House Bill 1297 into law, following its passage by the state's 68th Legislative Assembly (final votes of 81-11 in the House and 43-4 in the Senate after a conference committee). The act creates a new section of N.D.C.C. chapter 23-02.1 that bars amending the sex designation on a birth record under section 23-02.1-25 "due to a gender identity change." It permits correction only where the original entry was a scrivener or data-entry error, is contradicted by chromosomal or genetic testing, or reflects a subsequent anatomical change certified by a medical provider, and it statutorily defines "sex" as the biological state at birth based on nonambiguous sex organs, chromosomes, or hormone profiles. The bill was filed with the Secretary of State on May 9, 2023.

The practical effect is that a transgender North Dakotan can no longer update the gender marker on their birth certificate to match their gender identity under any circumstances, an avenue that had previously been available. The Human Rights Campaign, which named HB1297 specifically, described the law as one of three anti-LGBTQ+ measures Burgum signed targeting the ability of transgender people to be legally and socially recognized in accordance with their gender identity. Advocacy tracking of state identity-document rules confirms the resulting standard: North Dakota no longer amends birth-certificate gender markers except where genetic testing shows an error in the sex assigned at birth.