Ignorant Misuse of the Word 'Gender' Update.

Roto-Reuters: New York rejects transgender birth certificate law
New York City's health department on Tuesday rejected a proposal that would have allowed transgender people to switch the gender on their birth certificates without a sex-change operation.

Advocates who had been praising the proposal as ground-breaking for the rights of transgender people called it a frustrating setback when officials rescinded the proposal just before it was due for a vote by the board of health.

Had it passed, people who live in the gender opposite their genitalia would have been able to acquire a new birth certificate if they had the backing of doctors and mental health professionals.

The health department cited "broader societal ramifications" for killing the proposal, noting that hospitals, schools and jails still must classify people by gender.

"For example, how can you send a person with a penis to a women's prison?" said one health department official who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak for the department.

What is surprising to me is that someone in New York has enough sense (and cajones [sorry]) to ask a question like that.

He must live in Jersey.

New York City's health department, which keeps birth and death records, had made the proposal in recognition that many transgender people cannot afford sex reassignment surgery or do not consider it necessary to live in their acquired gender.

"Acquired"? How so?

Some transgender people get by just on hormone treatments and others cannot have the operation for health reasons, all while still living in the gender that does not correspond to their anatomy.

The transgender rights movement has grown in recent years to protect a small minority whose members tend to be poorer and more susceptible to violence than society at large, advocates say.

The city did alter one aspect of the law to permit transgender people who have had gender reassignment surgery to get a new birth certificate noting their new gender.

Until now, those birth certificates have not identified either gender.

Bigot! How dare you limit the number of possible "genders"? The googleplexicalsexuals will feel slighted.

"We are disappointed but we are not going to take defeat and walk away. We are going to try again and get an even better law the next time around," said Michael Silverman, executive director of the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund.

"It feels like it was a missed opportunity to do the right thing," he said.