Following is an excerpt from a BusinessWire news release found in the January 27, 2009 edition of earthtimes.org. No comment… The “bold type” emphasis is mine…
CHICAGO – (Business Wire) Citing the need to have an accurate birth certificate for identification purposes, two women born in Illinois today asked a court to order the State to issue new birth certificates that reflect their appropriate and accurate gender following gender confirmation surgery (sometimes described as sex reassignment surgery.) For more than four decades, Illinois has permitted individuals who have gender confirmation surgery to change the gender “marker” on an original birth certificate; the Department of Vital Records, however, recently started interpreting the law to provide this option only if an individual has the surgery by a United States-licensed physician. This creates an unnecessary and unfair burden for the growing number of persons who select a surgeon from Europe, South America or Asia, according to the ACLU of Illinois. Both of the women in today’s lawsuit opted for their own reasons to have their gender confirmation surgery in Thailand.
The lawsuit filed today by the ACLU of Illinois in Cook County Circuit Court argues that denying these women – and others who face the same discrimination – the ability to secure a new, accurate birth certificate not only creates everyday challenges that are unnecessary and dangerous, but it is antithetical to the advice of medical experts who recommend that persons who transition their gender identity ensure that all aspects of their lives reflect that gender identity.
“I am a woman and I have identified as a woman since early childhood,” said Victoria Kirk, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed today. “After making the difficult decision – with the advice and support of my physician and a therapist – to have surgery to conform to this identity, it was disheartening to learn that the State of Illinois would not issue a new birth certificate that recognizes me as a woman simply because I elected to have surgery overseas.”
Read the ACLU of Illinois Media Alert.
I’m curious why you felt the need to highlight sections and note “no comment.” The reason people go to Thailand to have gender reassignment surgery is because most insurance companies won’t cover the procedure and the surgery in Thailand is affordable. Many other individuals lacking insurance are going to Thailand for heart bipass and other types of surgery for the same reason.
This is not a good thing for future genealogical research (say 500 or 1000 years from now, assuming the human society continue to exist). What if someone who was born male, grow up male, married a woman and has children, then decided to become a woman and wanted the state to change his gender on the birth certificate to change from M to F. His children’s descendants would have a hard time trying to figuring out how did their ancestors descended from two different women so identified in the birth certificates or the US census citations? If you understand what I mean?
The reason particular sections are highlighted are that they are “not my words.” Highlighted text has been written by someone else. Unless it’s a news release, the text always leads to more detail if you click on the links.