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Birth certificates: a gendering apparatus

Started by Shana A, October 27, 2009, 08:22:32 AM

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Shana A

October 27, 2009, 08:22:32 AM
Birth certificates: a gendering apparatus
The state imposes unfair requirements on trans citizens

By Quinn Albaugh
Published: Oct 26

http://mcgilldaily.com/articles/21700

Last week, I touched on why I'm uncomfortable interacting with the police as a trans person. However, the police are part of a larger system in which the state "genders" its citizens, deciding for each one what their legal gender will be and ignoring what those citizens have to say about the issue.

Generally speaking, the state assumes that all people are cis (or "non-trans"). As a result, it sees no problem in assigning each citizen a perceived sex via the birth certificate, then putting this assigned sex on subsequent documents, such as driver's licenses and passports. In order to reverse this assignment of sex on all gendered documents, it's often necessary to change it on the birth certificate first.
"Be yourself; everyone else is already taken." Oscar Wilde
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