A heated exchange erupted during a recent episode when Bill Maher confronted comedian Patton Oswalt over California’s policies regarding gender markers on birth certificates, revealing a stark divide in awareness about the state’s progressive legislation.
Maher insisted that California had moved toward removing sex designations from birth certificates, stating emphatically: “that’s what they wanted” and “it was a law here in California.” When pressed by Oswalt on whether this was actually being taught, Maher doubled down: “Yes, we were teaching teaching it. It was a law here in California.”
Oswalt appeared genuinely surprised by the claim, responding: “I’m sorry I don’t remember that.” Bill attributed his unfamiliarity to media echo chambers, noting “I know because it doesn’t get in the blue sky bubble,” referring to the social media platform where he’s active.
The comedian drew a comparison to police brutality, arguing that many issues remain invisible until they’re caught on camera. “I remember the african-american community was always saying there’s brutality from the cops everyone said ‘oh that’s ridiculous, stop it, this is all myth,’ and then cops started wearing body cameras and lo and behold, there’s all this footage,” Oswalt said.
Maher then retorted and added that such violence also affected white people but “that didn’t make it into videos because nobody cared about that.”
The disagreement touches on real California legislation. In October 2017, Governor Jerry Brown signed the Gender Recognition Act into law, which fundamentally changed how the state handles gender markers on official documents. Beginning January 2018, California allowed individuals to designate their gender as male, female, or nonbinary on birth certificates without requiring any medical documentation—only a sworn statement.
The law represented a significant shift in how the state approaches gender identity from birth. Parents gained the option to leave gender markers unspecified, choosing to raise children without imposed gender classifications. This approach, known as “gender-creative parenting,” has gained traction among some California families.
One Los Angeles couple made headlines for registering their child, Azul, with dashes instead of a gender designation. However, when they applied for a Social Security number, federal requirements overrode the state policy, automatically classifying the child as male without explanation or parental consent.
This conflict between state and federal systems creates complications for families pursuing nonbinary options. While California extended its nonbinary recognition to driver’s licenses and state IDs in 2019 and even death certificates by 2021, federal documents largely continue to require binary male or female designations.