California’s Gender Recognition Act (SB 179), signed into law on October 15, 2017, makes it significantly easier for all transgender people who are living in or were born in California to obtain identity documents that reflect their genders, and makes California the second state in the county to offer a standard path to obtaining a nonbinary gender marker on state documents.
That said, the law does not go into effect all at once, and only affects certain documents. Notably, it does not affect documents issued by other states or the federal government (including Social Security cards, passports, and documents issued by US Citizenship and Immigration Services). This fact sheet offers some clarification of the timeline and nature of the changes.
Fact Sheet: California’s Gender Recognition Act (SB 179)(PDF)