Transgender Woman Wins Right To Change Birth Certificate

[Butterfly]

Transgender Woman Wins Right To Change Birth Certificate
Fox Reno.com
April 10, 2009


http://www.foxreno.com/news/19154492/detail.html


SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. -- A transgender Kansas woman won the right from a state appeals court in San Francisco on Friday to change the gender on her California birth certificate from male to female.

Gigi Marie Somers, who now lives in Kansas, was born in Los Angeles in 1941 and was identified on her birth certificate as a male.

In 2005, she underwent gender reassignment surgery and changed her name to her current name.

[Shana A]

Court OKs out-of-state birth certificate change
Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, April 11, 2009

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fc%2Fa%2F2009%2F04%2F10%2FBAMR170L38.DTL

A 67-year-old Los Angeles native, now living in Kansas, won a state appeals court ruling in San Francisco on Friday that makes it easier for California-born transgender people to change their birth certificate, a document that can be critical in a security-conscious age.

Gigi Marie Somers was born male but has lived most of her life as a woman, and underwent sex-change surgery in 2005. She got a driver's license with her new name and gender and sought a new birth certificate, but learned that Kansas was one of the few states that will not change a resident's sex designation on a birth certificate.

Somers then turned to a California court, only to discover that a 1977 state law requires an application for a sex change on a new birth certificate to be filed in the county where the applicant now lives.

[lisagurl]

It is a catch 22, a legal boondoggle. I have a similar problem living in MS and born in NY. NY does not like my MS name change and other paper work like my records from Thailand. The only way I can get it changed is with a court order from a NY judge which would take getting a NY lawyer and taking it to court in NY. Mean while I have changed everything else and no need for a BC .