The State Department is marking Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month — a designation instituted by President Obama last year — anyone with a note from a physician is now free to claim any gender on a passport.
Read related story: Mother & Father Deleted from Passport: Obama Administration Gay Agenda
-- From "Surgery not required to change gender on passports" by Associated Press 6/12/10
Transgender travelers no longer will need surgery in order to change their stated genders on U.S. passports, the State Department said Wednesday.
Beginning Thursday, a transgender person applying for a U.S. passport will just need to show a physician's certification that the applicant has "undergone appropriate clinical treatment for gender transition" to declare a new gender on a passport, the department said.
The State Department says the new policy is based on standards and recommendations from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health.
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From "New Passport Rules Ease Switch for Transgenders" by Katy Steinmetz, Time Magazine 6/12/10
This new, no-surgery-required standard is similar to those in European countries like the United Kingdom, where emphasis is placed on transgender citizens living the life of their "acquired gender" rather than what they anatomically bring to the table. And it's more in line with the progressive, individualistic philosophy of the LGBT community, which has pushed for this change for years.
The previous surgical requirement was based on the notion that gender is all in the genitals, explains Walter Bockting, a clinical psychologist who studies transgender issues at the University of Minnesota. But there is no one-size-fits-all surgery that scientifically constitutes a change in gender — which also made the passport issuing process difficult for State Department employees — and many people can't afford to have elective procedures. He estimates that male-to-female genital reconstruction costs between $12,000 and $25,000, while chest surgery, the most common female-to-male procedure, costs between $4,000 and $8,000. And he ballparks the cost of phallus construction, a much less common and less developed procedure, at between $20,000 and $75,000, depending how far a woman goes in the multi-stage process.
Others simply don't feel they need surgery to assume the gender role they feel is right for them.
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