As many government agencies nationwide work to make services more inclusive for all individuals, New Jersey has been a front-runner in offering services like the alteration of sex on birth and death certificates.
The New Jersey website aims to act as a centralized information hub, offering information about key programs and services to support transgender and non-binary individuals in the state.
The website, initially released as a beta version, has information about how to legally change a name — a process that is typically quite complicated — as well as how to acquire legal assistance and mental and physical health care. It also includes information about rights and legal protections.
This beta version of the portal will be continually updated based on feedback from users, which will allow the state to build the platform both with and for communities being served, state Chief Innovation Officer Beth Simone Noveck said in the announcement.
To build its initial version of the resource, the state collected feedback from over two dozen community groups and conducted user-need surveys to understand the challenges faced by transgender and non-binary individuals.
The website’s home page includes a search feature and a link for users to contribute feedback.
“Across the country, the transgender and non-binary community often face barriers to accessing needed services,” said Gov. Phil Murphy in the announcement. “In New Jersey, we must ensure that we are leading the nation by making a concerted effort to streamline and simplify access to important services, programs, and protections.”
This online resource builds on the Murphy administration’s other work to strengthen protections and services for the transgender and non-binary community. Last year, Murphy signed executive orders 311 and 295, strengthening name change confidentiality and establishing state certification of LGBTQ+-owned businesses, respectively.
The platform is also part of the state’s broader Resident Experience Initiative, known as ResX, which uses funding from the American Rescue Plan to make resident services simpler and more efficient.
As noted in the announcement by Christian Fuscarino, Garden State Equality’s executive director, this launch comes at a time when other state governments “seek to take rights away from trans people,” making this tool “even more important.”
