A new law in Washington DC allows individuals to change the sex designation on their birth certificate based on the gender they personally identify as, no matter what sexual organs they actually have.
It’s called the Marriage Officiant Amendment Act of 2013 and it repeals the old law that requires a surgical sex-change operation for an official gender switch on an individual’s birth certificate. Now, people who want to change their assigned sex in the eyes of the state only need to provide a written request and a signed statement from a healthcare provider.
Mayor Vincent Gray framed the new law in the context of “discrimination” in his signing statement:
By signing the Birth Certificate Equality Amendment into law, my administration continues to meet the needs of all residents, so that they may work, live and thrive in safe communities, free from stigma and discrimination…We know that something such as a birth certificate not only validates the gender identity or expression of transgender individuals but it also provides them the opportunity they should have been guaranteed in the first place–especially around such issues of employment and housing.
The Los Angeles Times calls the law “the country’s most liberal policy for updating birth certificates, one that transgender activists hope will become a nationwide model.”
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