Canadian Human Rights Tribunal May Drop Gender From Birth Certificates After Complaints by Transgender, Intersex Activists
In a complaint filed by the Trans Alliance Society and several transgender and intersex individuals, the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal has agreed to consider dropping gender categories on birth certificates, which may give "false information," activists say.
Last week, the National Post of Canada published a story detailing the complaints of transgender individuals and activists who believe possible "false information" based on a quick inspection of the genitals is discriminatory.
"Birth certificates (may) give false information about people and characterize them in a way that is actually wrong, that assumes to be right, and causes people … actual harm," said Morgane Oger, chair of the Trans Alliance Society. "It's considered true and infallible when it isn't," she added.
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Vincent Villano, a spokesperson for the Washington,D.C.-based National Center for Transgender Equality, told The Christian Post, "In an ideal world there is no real reason why gender is on identification cards." Villano, however, explained that their organization is working to better accommodate transgender individuals to have "access to accurate identification."
The National Post quoted babrara findlay ("who spells her name in all lowercase letters for non conformity purposes"), who does not believe you can tell a child's gender at birth.
"That means that children are raised 'as' the birth-assigned gender, which is a crazy-making experience," declared findlay. "Instead of living in a social reality that recognizes that gender develops, and does not exist at birth, those children have nothing to work with except that something feels profoundly wrong.
"Getting to the stage of being able to 'change' gender is an anguishing process, in which a child often experiences severe pushback from their own families."
She believes gender is determined not by what is between the legs but by simply asking a person their gender category.
In a 2014 press release on changes to New York law regarding changes to gender markers on birth certificates, the National Center for Transgender Equality wrote:
"According to the National Transgender Discrimination Survey, 40% of transgender people have faced harassment when presenting identity documents that did not match their gender identity/expression. In addition, 15% report being denied entry or asked to leave because of gender mismatches, and 3% report facing physical assault due to mismatched ID."
The New York law was changed to allow individuals to change their birth certificate without proof of surgery, which is a right recognized by some states but not all. The American Medical Association has said surgery shouldn't be a requirement to change birth certificates.
Connecticut is the most recent state to change the law making it easier to change your gender on your birth certificate.
Last month in South Carolina, The Washington Post reported that teenager Chase Culpepper, who now identifies as female, won a federal lawsuit that forced the state to change their rules for transgender and non-gender conforming license photos.
Some experts feel the rules requiring gender on a birth certificate may be difficult to change because data is kept for census collecting purposes.
In a post regarding the controversy in British Columbia, popular conservative Canadian citizen and American resident Mark Steyn wrote, "Having done an impressive job of demolishing the basic societal building block of the family, the left has now advanced to demolishing the basic biological building block of the sexes."
On Tuesday, the National Post in Canada published a story about "Transable" people who purposefully become disabled or live as disabled, despite otherwise normal bodies, because they do not feel normal as able bodied individuals.
