Ruling is victory for transgender New Yorkers who seek to change gender on birth certificates
NEW YORK — He had been through sex-change surgery and wanted his birth certificate to reflect the man he’d become, at nearly 70.
City health officials said they needed a psychiatric report and detailed surgical records to switch the gender on his birth certificate — requirements that put up undue roadblocks, a judge recently ruled in a case that highlights legal questions around a sensitive issue of identity.
The ruling, made public last week , orders the city Health Department to re-evaluate his request and questions the agency’s understanding of “the lives and experience of transgender people.” It marks something of a victory for advocates seeking to make it easier for people who have changed gender to change their identity documents.
“I hope that the Department of Health will really take this to heart and really see that the court is, in this decision, recognizing the importance of respecting the identities of transgender individuals,” said Erica Kagan, a lawyer for the man, Louis Birney, who declined to be interviewed.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ruling-victory-transgendered-yorkers-seek-change-gender-birth-certificates-article-1.1051013#ixzz1qMxwa4E7
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