So-called transgender residents (suffering from sexual identity disorder) who claim to have changed their gender after birth, are suing over the requirement to show proof of such, in order to obtain a new birth certificate (showing the updated gender) in New York City.
-- From "Transgender New Yorkers sue over birth certificates" by Aman Ali, Reuters 3/23/11
A group of transgender residents filed a lawsuit against New York City over what they say are burdensome requirements for them to change the gender on their birth certificates.
The city's birth certificate requirements amount to discrimination for transgender residents, said Noah Lewis, an attorney representing the residents in the case.
New York's Health Department requires residents to show proof of surgical procedures in order to change the gender status on a birth certificate.
But the lawsuit, filed by the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund in state Supreme Court on behalf of three residents, said many transgender people cannot afford the surgical procedures.
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From "Transgender Sue Over Surgery Requirement to Alter Gender on Birth Certificate" by Susan Donaldson James, ABC News 3/24/11
Joann Prinzivalli's New York City birth certificate still reads: Paul Joseph Prinzivalli Jr., male, even though she transitioned to a woman more than a decade ago.
Prinzivalli, now 57, eventually changed her name and has legal documents -- a driver's license and a Social Security card -- but her birth certificate doesn't match.
She wants to take the final step to secure her identity, but the New York City Health Department has demanded she have sex reassignment surgery -- on her genitals.
Thirty years ago, she was healthy enough, but today Prinzivalli is morbidly obese and has type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol and a blood disorder that would make surgery dangerous.
She is one of three transgender New Yorkers who are challenging the city in a lawsuit, saying that requiring surgery amounts to discrimination.
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From "Transgender people contest NYC birth-record rule" by Jennifer Peltz, Associated Press 3/22/11
"Although we understand the concerns ... the Board of Health should not change its requirements without assurance that the amended certificate cannot be misused," said Gabriel Taussig, a city lawyer. He was responding to a lawsuit filed Monday by Louis Birney, a 70-year-old transgender man. Birney had genital surgery but objects to the requirements for detailed documentation and a psychiatric report, calling them violations of medical privacy.
Transgender-rights advocates have encouraged agencies to abandon surgical requirements for changing identity documents, with some results. . . . the U.S. State Department announced last year that transgender travelers no longer will need surgery – just a doctor's certification of appropriate treatment – to declare a new gender on a passport.
At 30, Sam Berkley has had surgery – a double mastectomy – to become the man he has sensed himself to be since childhood. His New York driver's license says he's male, and he's getting a passport.
But the city has turned down his requests to change his birth certificate, saying he failed to provide proof of sex-change surgery, though he submitted a doctor's statement saying he'd had irreversible surgery and had "completed sex reassignment," according to a lawsuit Berkley filed Friday through the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund. It also represents Prinzivalli.
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