page_title: Transgender rights in the United States
section_title: Hate crimes legislation
hierarchical_section_title: Transgender rights in the United States / Hate crimes legislation
context_page_description: Transgender rights in the United States vary considerably by jurisdiction as the Supreme Court of the United States has only once ruled directly on transgender rights, in 2020; regarding the applicability of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act 1964, in the case of R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, SCOTUS held that Title VII protections on sex discrimination in Employment extend to Transgender Employees.
  Birth certificates are typically issued by the Vital Records Office of the state where the birth occurred, and thus the listing of sex as male or female on the birth certificate is regulated by state law. However, federal law regulates sex as listed on a Consular Report of Birth Abroad, and other federal documents that list sex or name, such as the U.S. passport and Certificate of Naturalization. Laws concerning name changes in U.S. jurisdictions are also a complex mix of federal and state rules. States vary in the extent to which they recognize transgender people's gender identities, often depending on the steps the person has taken in their transition, with some states making sex reassignment surgery a pre-requisite of recognition.
context_section_description: Federal hate crimes legislation include limited protections for gender identity. The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 criminalized "willfully causing bodily injury (or attempting to do so with fire, firearm, or other dangerous weapon)" on the basis of an "actual or perceived" identity.  However, protections for hate crimes motivated on the basis of a victim's gender identity or sexual orientation is limited to "crime affect[ing] interstate or foreign commerce or occur[ring] within federal special maritime and territorial jurisdiction." This limitation only applies to gender identity and sexual orientation, and not to race, color, religion or national origin. Therefore, hate crimes which occur outside these jurisdictions are not protected by federal law.
  22 states plus Washington D.C. have hate crimes legislation which include gender identity or expression as a protected group. They are Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Missouri, Minnesota, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Rhode Island, Washington, Oregon, California, Hawaii, Maine, Tennessee, Puerto Rico, Utah, Virginia and New York. The District of Columbia also has a trans-inclusive hate crimes law. Twenty-seven states have hate-crimes legislation which exclude transgender people. Six states have no hate-crimes legislation at all.
  Numerous municipalities have passed hate-crime legislation, some of which include transgender people. However Arkansas, North Carolina and Tennessee recently passed laws which ban municipalities from enacting such protections for sexual orientation, gender identity or expression.
caption: US state hate crime laws as they pertain to gender identity.   Gender identity recognized in state hate crimes law   No enumerated protection[153]