If you’re a transgendered individual who lives in Washington, D.C., you can now replace the birth certificate you received at birth with a new one that has your new gender as your birth gender, CNS News reports.
The D.C. Council has unanimously approved the JaParker Deoni Jones Birth Certificate Equality Amendment Act of 2013, a measure that allows those transgendered individuals who have undergone “gender transition” to get that new birth certificate.
Democrat Mayor Vincent Gray is expected to sign the bill. Following that, the bill goes to Congress, which has 30 days to review it. If Congress does not reject the bill within 30 days, it becomes law. The bill states that the D.C. Registrar “shall issue a new birth certificate that reflects the new gender designation of an individual born in the District of Columbia.”
In order for the transgendered individual to obtain the new birth certificate, a parent, guardian, or legal representative has to obtain “a statement, signed under penalty of law, by a health-care provider licensed in the District of Columbia who has treated or evaluated the individual stating that the individual has undergone surgical, hormonal, or other medically appropriate treatment for a gender transition.”
The new birth certificates will no longer say “amended” as the old ones did; once the new birth certificate has been issued, the old one will be “sealed.” Lisa Mottet, director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s Transgender Civil Rights Project, celebrated: “This is a huge victory. D.C. now has the best law on birth certificates in the country.”
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