File #: Int 1258-2025    Version: * Name: Issuance and correction of sex designations on death records.
Type: Introduction Status: Committee
Committee: Committee on Women and Gender Equity
On agenda: 4/24/2025
Enactment date: Law number:
Title: A Local Law to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to the issuance and correction of sex designations on death records
Sponsors: Crystal Hudson, Chi A. Ossé, Tiffany Cabán, Erik D. Bottcher, Lynn C. Schulman
Council Member Sponsors: 5
Summary: This bill would require the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to issue death certificates with sex designations that are consistent with the gender identity indicated on documentation of gender transition and to establish a procedure to request correction of the sex designation on a death certificate.
Attachments: 1. Summary of Int. No. 1258, 2. Int. No. 1258, 3. April 24, 2025 - Stated Meeting Agenda

Int. No. 1258

 

By Council Members Hudson, Ossé, Cabán, Bottcher and Schulman

 

A Local Law to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to the issuance and correction of sex designations on death records

 

Be it enacted by the Council as follows:

 

Section 1. Chapter 1 of title 17 of the administrative code of the city of New York is amended by adding a new section 17-166.1 to read as follows:

§ 17-166.1 Sex designation on death records. a. Definitions. For the purposes of this section, the following terms have the following meanings:

Gender identity. The term “gender identity” means a person’s self-identified gender or lack of gender.

Supporting documentation. The term “supporting documentation” means documentation memorializing a decedent’s gender transition, including: a court order approving the decedent’s gender change; proof of clinical treatment for gender transition; an advance healthcare directive; written instructions from the decedent; or any documentation of a change to, or any application submitted by the decedent to change, the decedent’s sex designation on a vital record, social security record, passport, or a state, federal or local identification card.

b. The department shall make best efforts to issue death records with a sex designation that reflects the decedent’s gender identity. When supporting documentation is made available to the department prior to the issuance of a death record, the department shall issue a death record with a sex designation that is consistent with the gender identity indicated by the supporting documentation.

c. The department shall establish a procedure to request correction of sex designation on a death record and shall post an application form and instructions for making such a request on its website. The instructions shall address, at a minimum, who is eligible to apply and what information to provide with the application. The application form shall allow the applicant to request either a new or amended death certificate. If an applicant requests a new death certificate and the department approves the application, the department shall issue a new death certificate without any marking to show that it was amended.

§ 2. This local law takes effect 180 days after it becomes law.

LH

LS #18528

04/15/2025