Texas suddenly stops allowing gender maker updates on Birth Certificates

Texas is now the 8th state to have discriminatory policies or laws banning trans people from updating Birth Certificates. 

On Friday, August 30, 2024, the Texas Department of Vital Statistics without notice blocked trans people from updating their Birth Certificates.

That came just days after the state removed a single line from the drivers license policy blocking court ordered gender marker changes on Driver Licence.

The archived webpage shows how the policy used to read before August 30.

Texas law permits changes to birth certificates if proven “by satisfactory evidence to be inaccurate.” However, it doesn’t allow state agencies to make substantive policy changes without 30 days’ notice and a public comment period.

Johnathan Gooch with Equality Texas, an LGBTQ rights organization, said that this change will affect transgender Texans' ability to carry out everyday, necessary tasks like opening a bank account.

"Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has bullied state agencies into denying the specific types of updates that transgender Texans need," Gooch added. "Ironically, that means the state’s top legal officer has instructed state agencies to deny court orders from state judges. So, what should be a simple administrative task has now become a nightmare."

BC to stop requiring surgery to change gender on birth certificates

British Columbia is changing their archaic law forcing surgical modifications and sterilization prior to changing ones birth certificate.

And we can thank fifth grader Harriette Camille Cunningham and her family for their efforts in making this happen.

It's been a difficult road full of hardships for ten year old Harriette, but thanks to her family she has persevered.
The The Globe and Mail reported last month that by law, the Grade 5 pupil in the small community of Comox, on Vancouver Island, cannot change her birth certificate until she is old enough to have sex-reassignment surgery. Her birth certificate identifies her as Declan Forrest Cunningham, but her family has filed the paperwork to change her legal name to Harriette Camille Cunningham.

In a letter to her MLA, Don McRae, Harriette has asked for help to change her gender identity on paper without waiting for an operation that she may or may not choose to have years from now, “because in my opinion it really shouldn’t matter.”

That was then, this now! From the Times Colonist article dated October 5th:

A policy change underway at the Ministry of Health will remove one barrier to official recognition of gender identity for transgender people in British Columbia, the Times Colonist has learned.

Sex reassignment surgery will no longer be required before the sex designation associated with a person’s B.C. Services Card can be changed, according to the ministry.

The new policy should take effect by the end of the year, a spokesman said, but the ministry could not specify a date. Health Minister Terry Lake was not available for an interview.

B.C. Services Cards began replacing CareCards in February, and the planned change arose during the discussions surrounding that transition, according to the spokesman.

Matti, another transgender Canadian girl explains what this could mean her

Chicago: ACLU sues on transgender birth certificate

Source Radical Queer News;

Chicago: ACLU sues on transgender birth certificate

CHICAGO, Jan. 27 (UPI) — The American Civil Liberties Union says it will sue Illinois for refusing to issue a new birth certificate to a citizen who underwent a sex-change operation.

Attorneys announced the lawsuit in Chicago Tuesday, saying the state Department of Vital Records had routinely changed birth certificates for transgender people for more than 40 years before recently pulling the plug on the practice.

The ACLU called birth certificates a fundamental document people need to legally and accurately establish their identity.

Full story at United Press International, Inc.