Polis and Colorado Dems Add “Gender Identity” to Death Certificates

Colorado Governor Jared Polis signed a controversial bill Thursday that will add a “gender” field to state death certificates starting January 1. The move, celebrated by progressive activists, has drawn sharp criticism from conservatives who argue it undermines biological reality and forces ideological compliance on public records.

House Bill 25-1109, sponsored by Democratic State Rep. Kyle Brown, introduces three gender options: male, female, and nonbinary. Coroners and funeral directors will now be required to list the deceased’s self-identified gender rather than their biological sex, which will remain recorded in a separate “sex” field. Supporters claim the change “honors lived experience,” but critics say it enforces a falsehood at the expense of factual accuracy.

Republicans in the legislature condemned the measure as a “deception” and warned it could invite federal scrutiny, particularly from the Trump administration, which has consistently affirmed that biological sex—not subjective identity—determines gender.

“This is yet another attempt to force radical gender ideology into law,” said one GOP lawmaker. “Death certificates are legal documents, not platforms for political statements. Recording biological sex is essential for medical and historical accuracy.”

While California and New York have adopted similar policies, most states still recognize only male and female on death certificates. A 2022 study in Portland, Oregon, found that over half of transgender and nonbinary individuals were misgendered on death records—a statistic proponents cite as justification for the change.

But conservatives argue that such policies prioritize activism over truth. “The state has no business mandating fiction on official documents,” said another Republican critic. “Biological sex is immutable, and pretending otherwise doesn’t change reality.”

With the new law set to take effect next year, Colorado now stands at the forefront of a contentious national debate—one that pits progressive social policies against traditionalist resistance.

For now, the battle over gender and biology continues, both in life and, increasingly, in death.