from the associated press

[cal333.livejournal.com]

Found this on the AP wire - apologies if it's been posted already.

New York City seeks to ease rules for official documents reflecting
gender change

By DAVID B. CARUSO
Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — The city wants to make it easier for transgender New
Yorkers to switch the sex listed on their birth certificate even
without undergoing sex-change surgery, putting the city at the
forefront of efforts to redefine gender.

Under present city rules, only people who can show proof of surgery
qualify for getting a revised birth certificate. Even then, the only
change made is the elimination of any reference to gender on the
document.

The new plan, unveiled in September, would let birth records reflect
the new gender. It would also allow changes for people who hadn’t had
genital surgery, but could show substantial proof that they have
undertaken other steps to irrevocably alter their gender-identity —
like undergoing hormone therapy.

The policy change is one that advocates for New York’s sizable
transgender community have requested for years, but which has taken
on greater significance in a post-Sept. 11 world of increased
security.

New Yorkers need to show picture ID to enter office towers, air
terminals, public monuments and all sorts of government buildings.
They need them to apply for a job too, or buy beer at a neighborhood
deli.

The trouble comes when someone inspects those documents, and notices
that a person’s listed gender doesn’t appear to match the way they
look and dress.

“That can be a very dangerous situation for a transgender person,”
said Cole Thaler, transgender rights attorney for the national legal
aid group Lambda Legal.

Thaler said having a birth certificate with a gender that matches a
person’s appearance will ease the way to getting other government
records, including passports, drivers’ licenses and Social Security
records.

Lorna Thorpe, Deputy Commissioner of New York’s Department of Health
and Mental Hygiene, called the current system “outdated.”
“A lot of transgender persons use different techniques to switch
genders,” she said. Some try hormones. A smaller number undergo
surgery — in part because not everyone is medically capable of
undergoing the procedure.

All but three states now allow people who have had a sex change to
get a new birth certificate and New York City has done so since 1971.
The city now issues about a dozen of the revised birth certificates a
year.

Of the states that allow similar changes of birth certificates,
almost all currently require proof of a gender-reassignment surgery.
Tennessee has a law expressly prohibiting a change of gender on a
birth certificate. Ohio and Idaho also won’t allow the change because
of court rulings or as a matter of administrative policy.