The namesake of a recently enacted law that allows New Jersey transgender residents to change their genders on their birth certificates has died.
Barbra “Babs” Casbar Siperstein died Sunday at age 76, though a cause of death was not disclosed. The death was reported by the gay rights advocacy group Garden State Equality.
Siperstein helped champion the new state law that took effect Friday. It allows the registrar to amend birth certificates based on how people identify themselves, as male, female or undesignated. Previous law allowed birth certificate changes only if a doctor certified that a person’s gender was surgically changed.
Siperstein also was the first openly transgender member of the Democratic National Committee. She was appointed to the committee in 2009 and two years later was appointed to its executive committee in 2011, where she served until October 2017.
