Wyoming Trans Laws: Healthcare, Sports, IDs, and Name Changes

Wyoming’s transgender laws, enacted mostly between 2023 and 2025, define sex biologically across all state statutes, prohibit gender-transition medical care for minors, limit school and college sports to birth sex, and tie restroom and facility access to sex at birth. Legal name changes are still available through the district courts, but gender marker changes on Wyoming birth certificates and driver’s licenses have reportedly been halted, and federal policy changes in 2025 have closed off similar updates on passports and Social Security records.

How Wyoming Defines Sex

House Bill 32, the “What is a Woman Act,” passed in the 2025 session and took effect on signing. Wherever Wyoming law distinguishes between the sexes, those distinctions now refer to biological sex at birth, with “male” and “female” defined by reproductive biology. The legislature also declared that sex-based legal distinctions are constitutionally permissible when they serve important interests like health, safety, and privacy.¹

Every school district, public school, and state agency that collects sex-identification data must record each person as male or female consistent with sex at birth. That covers vital statistics, anti-discrimination compliance records, and public health data. The statute carves out protection for people born with medically recognized differences in sex development, who cannot be denied legal protections or accommodations available under other laws.¹

Gender-Affirming Care for Minors

Senate File 99, called Chloe’s Law, took effect July 1, 2024. It prohibits physicians and healthcare providers from performing gender-transition interventions on anyone under eighteen. Prohibited interventions include surgeries on reproductive organs, mastectomies, and removal of otherwise healthy tissue. The law also bans prescribing puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones like testosterone or estrogen when used to align a minor’s physical characteristics with their gender identity.²

Any physician, nurse, or pharmacist who violates the law faces suspension or revocation of their professional license. SF 99 amends the licensing statutes for each of those professions to make a violation specific grounds for discipline.²

Two narrow exemptions apply. Minors born with a medically verifiable genetic disorder of sex development, such as certain chromosomal conditions, may receive treatment with parental consent. The same applies to minors diagnosed with central precocious puberty, a condition unrelated to gender identity in which puberty begins abnormally early.²

School and College Sports

Senate File 133 requires every public school athletic team and sport in grades seven through twelve to be designated by biological sex, defined as the condition of being male or female as determined by genetics and anatomy at birth. Private schools competing against public school teams must follow the same rule. In practice, transgender girls cannot join teams designated for female students.³

Any student, parent, or guardian who believes a school or athletic association has not followed the rules can seek an administrative hearing before the state board of education. Schools cannot retaliate against anyone who reports a violation or requests a hearing.³

Senate File 44, signed in 2025, extended the restriction to the University of Wyoming and all Wyoming community colleges. No educational institution may allow a student to compete in an athletic competition designated for the opposite sex, and female teams may not compete against teams the institution knows include male-sex students. For individual sports, schools may bar direct competition between male and female students when they determine it would be unsafe or unfair. A birth certificate counts as evidence of sex only if the entry was made at or near the time of birth or later corrected for a clerical error. Female students may still participate on male-designated teams when no corresponding female team exists.⁴

Restrooms, Locker Rooms, and Shelters

HB 32 declares that laws creating separate accommodations between the sexes in restrooms, locker rooms, prisons, detention facilities, domestic violence shelters, and rape crisis centers serve important government objectives tied to health, safety, and privacy. By building that finding into the statute, the legislature positioned facility-access restrictions to satisfy intermediate constitutional scrutiny against sex-discrimination challenges.¹

Because HB 32 ties “sex” to biological sex at birth throughout Wyoming law, public schools, state agencies, and political subdivisions that separate facilities by sex are expected to do so based on birth sex. Access to restrooms and locker rooms in government buildings and public schools follows the sex recorded at birth rather than gender identity.

Legal Name Changes

Any Wyoming resident can still petition the district court in their county for a legal name change. The petition must include the current full name, the desired new name, the reason for the change, the petitioner’s place of birth, and how long they have lived in the county of filing. Court instructions indicate a minimum of two years of county residency before filing.⁵

After filing, legal notice of the petition must be published in a local newspaper once a week for four consecutive weeks, giving anyone a chance to object before the judge rules. Filing fees generally run between $70 and $100 depending on the county, with newspaper publication adding to the total.⁶

If the court finds the change proper and not harmful to others’ interests, it issues an order granting the new name. The statute also protects address confidentiality for people who hold a court-issued confidentiality order, such as domestic violence survivors.⁵

Gender Markers on Wyoming IDs

Birth Certificates

Wyoming historically allowed an amended birth certificate reflecting a change in sex when the applicant submitted a court order and a physician’s letter confirming gender reassignment surgery. The fee for a court-ordered amendment through Vital Statistics Services is $55, and amendments must be submitted by mail.⁷

That has changed. HB 32 requires every state agency collecting vital statistics to identify each person consistent with sex at birth. Reports from early 2026 indicate the Wyoming Department of Health has stopped processing gender marker changes on birth certificates, limiting amendments to clerical corrections and missing information. Contact Vital Statistics Services directly to confirm current policy before starting any application.¹

Driver’s Licenses

A name change on a Wyoming driver’s license requires appearing in person at a driver exam office, surrendering the current license, and presenting legal proof of the change such as a court order.⁸

Gender marker changes on licenses have become much harder. The Department of Transportation reportedly now requires an amended birth certificate to update a gender marker and no longer accepts a physician’s letter alone. Because birth certificate gender amendments appear to have been halted under HB 32, this effectively blocks gender marker changes on Wyoming driver’s licenses. Verify current policy directly with the agency before relying on older guidance.

Federal IDs

Passports

Federal passport policy shifted in early 2025. Under Executive Order 14168, the U.S. government no longer issues passports with an “X” gender marker. Passports now carry only “M” or “F” matching the applicant’s biological sex at birth. The State Department does not accept self-attestations requesting a different sex marker and will issue documents based on supporting records and prior passport history.⁹

If you hold a passport listing a sex other than your birth sex, the State Department offers a replacement pathway. For passports issued less than one year ago, Form DS-5504 can be submitted by mail at no fee, with expedited processing available for $60. For passports issued more than a year ago, standard renewal or new-application procedures and fees apply.⁹

Social Security Records

The Social Security Administration introduced self-attestation for sex markers on SSN records in 2022, eliminating the need for medical or legal documentation to update the designation.¹⁰

That policy was reversed on January 31, 2025, when the SSA issued new guidance prohibiting changes to the sex recorded in Social Security files. The reversal followed a January 20, 2025 executive order directing federal agencies to recognize only biological sex. Updating the sex designation on Social Security records is not currently available. Social Security cards themselves do not display a sex marker, but the internal record affects interactions with other federal systems.

Employment Protections

Wyoming’s Fair Employment Practices Act lists sex, age, race, creed, color, national origin, ancestry, pregnancy, and disability as protected classes. Gender identity and sexual orientation are not included.¹¹

Federal law covers part of that gap. In Bostock v. Clayton County (2020), the U.S. Supreme Court held that firing someone for being transgender violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act because it amounts to discrimination “because of sex.” The protection applies to employers with fifteen or more employees and reaches hiring, firing, pay, promotions, and other terms of employment.¹²

The practical limit matters: many Wyoming employers fall below the fifteen-employee threshold. For workers at those smaller businesses, no state or federal statute explicitly prohibits gender-identity discrimination. Some Wyoming municipalities have passed their own non-discrimination ordinances that add coverage, but protection varies by city. Federal complaints go through the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission rather than a state agency.¹³

Incarcerated Transgender People

The Wyoming Department of Corrections maintains Policy 3.307 governing how transgender and intersex inmates are housed and treated. Housing is assigned case by case, not in a dedicated unit, and being transgender or intersex cannot be the sole factor in a housing decision.¹⁴

When an inmate identifies as transgender or intersex at intake, the facility must convene a Transgender Review Committee within three working days. The committee reviews medical records, criminal history, and interviews the inmate about their own perception of safety in male or female housing, and may refer the inmate for psychological or psychiatric evaluation before placement. Staff may ask about gender identity only for specific purposes such as intake, housing classification, or healthcare, and discussions must be respectful and confidential. No inmate may face discrimination based on gender identity or expression. How this internal policy interacts with HB 32’s statutory framework for detention facilities is an open question, and the policy may be revised as agencies align with the new law.¹⁴

1
Wyoming Legislature. Wyoming HB0032 Bill Summary – What is a Woman Act
2
Wyoming Legislature. Wyoming Code SF0099 – Children Gender Change Prohibition
3
Wyoming Legislature. Wyoming Code 21-25-101 through 21-25-204 – Student Eligibility in Interscholastic Activities
4
Wyoming Legislature. Wyoming Code SF0044 – Intercollegiate Athletic Competitions Based on Biological Sex
5
FindLaw. Wyoming Code 1-25-101 – Name Change
6
Wyoming Judicial Branch. Instructions for Name Change – Adult
7
Wyoming Department of Health. Amending a Vital Record
8
Wyoming Department of Transportation. Wyoming Department of Transportation Add/Change Information
9
U.S. Department of State – Bureau of Consular Affairs. Sex Markers in Passports
10
Social Security Administration. Social Security to Offer Self-Attestation of Sex Marker in Social Security Number Records
11
Justia Law. Wyoming Code 27-9-105 – Discriminatory and Unfair Employment Practices Enumerated
12
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Sex-Based Discrimination
13
Congress.gov. Supreme Court Rules Title VII Bars Discrimination Against Gay and Transgender Employees – Potential Implications
14
Wyoming Department of Corrections. Management of Transgender or Intersex Inmates – Policy and Procedure 3.307