The State Can Still Erase Trans People After Death

For many transgender people, a death certificate can become one last official act of misgendering — and the public health system barely tracks the damage.

A death certificate is supposed to be final. It is treated as neutral, administrative, unquestionable — the last official record of a life. It closes accounts, triggers insurance claims, settles estates, and fixes a person into the state’s archive.

For many trans people in the United States, it can also become the document that erases them.

If a transgend…