Transgender Residents and Alabama Birth Records: Name Changes, Sex Changes and Certified Copies

A copy request and an amendment are different services

For transgender residents of Blount County, Alabama, questions about birth certificates involve both the information on the record and which office handles a request. The Blount County Health Department advertises certified copies of vital records. ADPH’s birth-certificate corrections page describes a separate amendment process, with supporting legal documentation sometimes required.

The provisions discussed here concern Alabama birth records. Living in Blount County does not make Alabama the issuing state for someone born elsewhere; ADPH’s birth-records guidance directs those readers to other states’ vital-records offices.

The statute sets out separate name and sex provisions

Alabama Code §22-9A-19(c)(3) directs the State Registrar to amend an Alabama-born person’s name on a birth certificate after receiving a certified court order from a court with the necessary jurisdiction. Subsection (d) separately describes a certified court order indicating both a sex change by surgical procedure and a name change.

These are the published statutory conditions, not a determination that a particular applicant meets them. A name-change order alone should not be described as establishing every fact required by the separate sex-amendment provision.

The amendment rule and the 2025 law need to be read in context

Administrative Rule 420-7-1-.16 generally addresses corrections to facts recorded at birth while expressly recognizing the statutory name-and-sex-change provisions. Its latest listed amendment took effect December 15, 2022.

The later 2025 enrolled SB79 defines sex for the code by reference to male or female status observed or clinically verified at birth and addresses certain public entities’ sex-related data collection. Its effective date was October 1, 2025. The data section preserves an unknown entry on a child’s birth, fetal-death or death certificate when sex cannot medically be determined when reported, and allows additional data points.

The Legislature’s current site still publishes §22-9A-19’s amendment language. These documents alone do not show how the agency would decide a particular application under the combined provisions. This report does not announce an automatic approval, a new local ban or a court ruling resolving that question.

The state application is a request for review

ADPH’s amendment application, marked revised October 2024, asks which information should change and says additional documents or a court order are required in most cases. It lists a $20 amendment fee including one certified copy, with fees nonrefundable. A payment or completed form is not itself an approval.

The current administrative rule generally requires the record holder to apply at age 19 or older, with an exception for a guardian acting for an incapacitated person. Ask the state amendments office which documentation and procedure apply to the particular record.

County copies and state amendments have separate contacts

The county health department page, updated August 5, 2026, lists 205-922-0751 for its services. ADPH’s state contact page lists 334-206-2637 for amendments, adoptions and parentage inquiries; in-person requests to change or correct records at the Center for Health Statistics require an appointment.

Neither the county’s copy service nor the documents reviewed establish a decision on an individual amendment. This report does not address changes to passports, driver licenses or school records, which involve other authorities and requirements.