By Danburg                                            H.B. No. 1579
         76R5876 MCK-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to a change of name and vital statistics information.
 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-4           SECTION 1.  Subchapter B, Chapter 45, Family Code, is amended
 1-5     by adding Section 45.107 to read as follows:
 1-6           Sec. 45.107.  CHANGE OF NAME AND VITAL STATISTICS
 1-7     INFORMATION.  (a)  A court shall order a change of name for a
 1-8     petitioner under this subchapter if the petition is accompanied by
 1-9     a sworn affidavit of a licensed physician that the petitioner is a
1-10     gender other than the gender indicated on the petitioner's driver's
1-11     license, birth certificate, or other official document.
1-12           (b)  A court that orders a change of name for a petitioner
1-13     under this section shall simultaneously order:
1-14                 (1)  that the Department of Public Safety, as soon as
1-15     practicable, change the petitioner's gender on the petitioner's
1-16     driver's license and other identification documents under the
1-17     department's control; and
1-18                 (2)  that the Texas Department of Health, on receipt of
1-19     a physician's sworn affidavit that the petitioner is in fact a
1-20     person of a different gender than the gender indicated on the
1-21     petitioner's birth certificate, amend the petitioner's birth
1-22     certificate as provided by Section 192.011, Health and Safety Code,
1-23     to reflect the petitioner's change in sexual identity.
1-24           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
 2-1           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-2     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-3     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 2-4     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-5     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.