sable_twilight: (Default)
sable_twilight ([personal profile] sable_twilight) wrote2010-06-10 10:03 am

Surgery no longer a requirement for changing gender on passport

Wow. This is huge. I mean, beyond just huge. Like I cannot even begin to explain how big of a deal this is, particularly when coming from a Federal agency. Like OMG, I never saw this coming.

Admittedly, it's not the end all, be all perfect or ideal solution many in the trans activism would like to see*, but it is a heck of a lot better than was required previously or what many of us feared might happen.

* which, for myself, would be the elimination of a gender marker on things like passports, driver's licenses and identification cards. I mean, seriously, what purpose do they serve, other than possibly to protect from some imagined trans menace?

Anyway link to CNN article.


Surgery no longer a requirement for changing gender on passport

By the CNN Wire Staff

Washington (CNN) -- The U.S. State Department announced Wednesday a new policy that no longer requires passport applicants seeking a gender change to have undergone sexual reassignment surgery.

The policy, which goes into effect Thursday, allows a gender change with a certification from an attending physician.

The doctor's certification must confirm only that the passport applicant has undergone treatment for gender transition. Limited-validity passports for applicants who are in the process of gender transition also will be available under the policy.

Previously, individuals had to provide documentation from a surgeon that sex reassignment surgery had been performed on them, according to the National Center for Transgender Equality.

The announcement was made to coincide with Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Pride Month, the State Department said.

[identity profile] alias-treefrog.livejournal.com 2010-06-10 05:19 pm (UTC)(link)
SQUEE! now if only Social Security would get the memo....*Sigh*

*SMOOCH!*
-Erika

[identity profile] elegantblackcat.livejournal.com 2010-06-10 07:10 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh wow! That is huge! Pretty short article, I would like to read more about how they came to that decision. Too bad it sounds like it only affects passports, and not drivers license... could be awkward having a different gender on each one.
Definitely moving forward tho... I am impressed.

[identity profile] akaiyume.livejournal.com 2010-06-11 11:54 am (UTC)(link)
Not sure about every state, but where I live, in you have a passport, then you need two other documents. These can be things like W-2's, property titles, voter registration and a lot of others which don't list gender. So the dl/state id would written as what is shown on the primary id document (the passport).

[identity profile] dracko.livejournal.com 2010-06-11 01:07 am (UTC)(link)
Woah.

[identity profile] akaiyume.livejournal.com 2010-06-11 11:50 am (UTC)(link)
I spent 11 years approving passport applications. And it is about damned time that regulation got changed. It was the most senseless one on the book (and considering some of the other regulations that says a lot). Not far enough, but much more sensible.