(JTA) — Barbra Siperstein, who fought for transgender rights in the United States, has died.

Siperstein died on Feb. 3 in New Brunswick, New Jersey at the age of 76. She died two days after a law named for her went into effect, which allows New Jersey residents to amend the gender on their birth certificates without proof of gender reassignment surgery.

The legislation, which had been passed and then vetoed twice by Republican Gov. Chris Christie, was signed into law by Democratic Gov. Philip D. Murphy and went into effect on Feb. 1.

Siperstein, an army veteran who was born with the name Barry, told her wife, Carol, that she was transgender in the late 1980s. Her wife was supportive and the couple stayed together until Carol’s death in 2001. In the intervening years they had used an amalgamation of their initials and names as an alias for Siperstein, Casbar. While she had been transitioning in stages since telling her wife, Siperstein became a public advocate for gender equality and transgender rights after her death.

In 2009 after completing sex reassignment surgery, she officially changed her Hebrew name from Eliezer Banish to Baila Chaya, the New Jersey Jewish Ledger reported at the time.

She was the first transgender member of the executive committee of the Democratic National Committee, and served from 2011-2017. During that time, she successfully worked to convince the party to include gender identity as a category for protected rights. Also during that time, she was a super delegate for Hillary Clinton at the Democratic National Convention.

Siperstein “was never shy to push us to open our hearts and minds, and to move our thinking ever forward,” Murphy said in a statement after her death.