WA’s health department speeds up sex designation change requests on birth certificates

The process for Washingtonians to change the sex listed on their birth certificates is getting a whole lot faster.

On Wednesday, the Washington state Department of Health announced that it is expediting sex designation change requests on birth certificates. Such requests will now be processed in three business days, plus mail and delivery time.

Gov. Bob Ferguson applauded the move on X (formerly Twitter), writing that he was “very proud to announce” the shift. People previously had to wait as long as 10 months, Ferguson wrote.

“A team of more than a dozen people worked through a weekend to clear the department’s backlog of more than 500 requests,” the governor said in a Feb. 12 post. “We’re speeding up government and centering the people.”

McClatchy has emailed the offices of the governor and health department seeking additional comment.

The announcement comes shortly after President Donald Trump’s return to the White House. Within his first month in office, Trump has signed multiple executive orders affecting transgender people, including one barring trans girls and women from competing on women’s sports teams.

Last week Washington’s schools superintendent said he was working with the state attorney general in response to the transgender-athlete ban, McClatchy previously reported.

• How do I change the sex on my birth certificate?

Those born in Washington can update the sex listed on their birth certificate if they complete and submit a request form to the health department’s Center for Health Statistics, according to the agency’s website. Birth certificates in the state have three options for sex designation: F for female, M for male and X.

“X” on a birth certificate indicates genders that aren’t exclusively female or male, according to the department. These include but aren’t limited to “intersex, agender, amalgagender, androgynous, bigender, demigender, female-to-male, genderfluid, genderqueer, male-to-female, neutrois, nonbinary, pangender, third sex, transgender, transsexual, Two Spirit, and unspecified.”

The health department noted that after the three-day processing time, folks should allow for an additional two weeks to receive the new certificate. The agency wrote that it’s committed to efficiently processing the requests, but that the timeline could fluctuate based on mail delivery and staffing availability.