Devil's Advocate: Birth Certificates and Transgender

[Shana A]

Devil's Advocate: Birth Certificates and Transgender
by Roland Hulme Published: April 04, 2011

http://www.edenfantasys.com/sexis/body/devils-advocate-birth-certificate-changes-transgender-0304111/

Should Transgender People be Able to Change the Sex on Their Birth Certificates? Recently, SexIs featured a story about three transgender people in New York City suing to have the sex on their birth certificates changed — normally forbidden unless they've had reconstructive surgery.
At the risk of playing Devil's Advocate, I totally disagree with their suit. Not just the right of these New Yorkers to change the sex on their birth certificate; but also the logic behind any transgender people having that information changed.

[Lepidoptera]

What a sadly ignorant piece of writing. The author doesn't seem to grasp that birth certificate changes are not an attempt to alter history, but to make the certificate reflect the person's gender. When a child is adopted, the adoptive parents get a birth certificate reflecting their relationship to the child. This does not "erase" history or create some farce that the birth parents didn't exist. It's a reflection of the social reality, the same as changing the birth certificate for a transsexual.