This should not have happened in the first place. Birth certificates record a fact. Changing that fact to reflect a person's internal turmoil and disgust with their biological reality is just plain wrong.
That having been said, I wholeheartedly agree that it should be EASY to correct an obvious error in a birth certificate, which is what the amendment to change female to male or male to female simply because someone is having trouble accepting reality is - an error. There needs to be legislation on this!
In Maryland, where I live, there was a bill this past session seeking to make it easier -- to make it a snap, in fact -- to change one's sex on a birth certificate. I'm usually thankful to live in a blue state, but this stuff makes my blood boil.
A birth certificate is a legal document. It records history. It shouldn't be changed willy-nilly.
I'm going to repeat, I know like a broken record, what I've said/written so many times: If Eddie Izzard is a woman, then Rachel Dolezal is black. Likewise, if I "identify" as a Celt, therefore I am. Never mind that my heritage is Italian; I hereby declare myself Celtic! Voilà! I also identify as a 30-year-old -- the state should pay for my facelift! Double voilà!
The reality is that a birth certificate should forever reflect the chromosome sex of the person.
Why is sex or gender required on any other government or health care documentation. For health care it needs to be tailored to the person anyway. For government (e.g. passports and drivers licenses) the sex/gender is meaningless. It just causes confusion if the person does not present as the "normal" view of that gender.
I doubt that countries will ever require an id to enter a sex defined space like a woman's bathroom.
"This is the unspoken reality in the LGBTQ legal and advocacy world: there is no institutional support for detransitioners. The same energy, money, and political capital that fast-tracks trans identities vanishes when people decide to step away...Why?
I think it’s because detransitioners are inconvenient. They challenge the narrative that transition is always a triumph, that everyone who embarks on it finds their “true self,” and that medical and legal interventions are unquestionably positive. Detransitioners remind us that people change their minds...
This has real-world consequences. Health insurance systems, medical providers, legal entities — all of them rely on official documents. When those documents carry inaccurate information, it leads to denial of care, legal roadblocks, and emotional distress."
Yes!
But detransitioners have become more than just inconvenient. Detransition begins after medicalization, which means genital surgeries and cross-sex hormones that go horribly wrong and can cause crippling side effects. Insurance companies have largely evaded paying doctors for complex surgical revisions. For example, in 2023, despite the passionate testimonies of detransitioners, Texas Republicans were unsuccessful in passing a bill that would have required insurance companies to cover medically injured detransitioners.
By representing detransitioners' right to correct their birth certificates, Lambda would implicitly be siding with them in an ideological battle that could result in economic burdens on insurance companies whose goal is to make money, not spend it. This, Lambda does not want to do. Once again, ideology trumps biology.
Is it possible that simply claiming to be a male transitioning to a female, without mention of of the prior 'transition' would have been successfully supported and effected?
This whole opinion piece is based on the assumption that LL didn’t take her case because she’s a detransitioner. However, we don’t know that as fact. Additionally, perhaps LL doesn’t concentrate on detransitioners—it’s not part of their business model. So what? As a business owner, I turn away business that doesn’t fit in my lane all the time. Maybe someone needs to grow a similar network foe detransitioners. Now, before I get blasted, let me say I have a trans-identified adult child going on over a decade and I am extremely concerned with our society’s affirmative only approach. However, I view this piece as an outrage enhancer vs addressing actual issues with facts. This bothers me just as much because it distracts us from what we need to pay attention to.
Oh the Courage Coalition is helping this detransitioner and I did put her in contact with someone at the actual attorney generals office. We are there for detransitioners. It is outrageous that Lamda Legal doesn’t vet their cases better.
Oh, the absolute irony to see you use the same arguments trans activists have been using for decades, but to not have the capacity to understand the parallels.
This should not have happened in the first place. Birth certificates record a fact. Changing that fact to reflect a person's internal turmoil and disgust with their biological reality is just plain wrong.
That having been said, I wholeheartedly agree that it should be EASY to correct an obvious error in a birth certificate, which is what the amendment to change female to male or male to female simply because someone is having trouble accepting reality is - an error. There needs to be legislation on this!
Yes, it should be illegal to LIE on a legal document, and anyone involved in the lie should be prosecuted as well, for fraud.
Perfectly stated. I agree completely.
Thank you for this eloquent essay. I have restacked.
Thank you. I've restacked several quotes.
In Maryland, where I live, there was a bill this past session seeking to make it easier -- to make it a snap, in fact -- to change one's sex on a birth certificate. I'm usually thankful to live in a blue state, but this stuff makes my blood boil.
A birth certificate is a legal document. It records history. It shouldn't be changed willy-nilly.
I'm going to repeat, I know like a broken record, what I've said/written so many times: If Eddie Izzard is a woman, then Rachel Dolezal is black. Likewise, if I "identify" as a Celt, therefore I am. Never mind that my heritage is Italian; I hereby declare myself Celtic! Voilà! I also identify as a 30-year-old -- the state should pay for my facelift! Double voilà!
This "identity" bs is off the charts.
The reality is that a birth certificate should forever reflect the chromosome sex of the person.
Why is sex or gender required on any other government or health care documentation. For health care it needs to be tailored to the person anyway. For government (e.g. passports and drivers licenses) the sex/gender is meaningless. It just causes confusion if the person does not present as the "normal" view of that gender.
I doubt that countries will ever require an id to enter a sex defined space like a woman's bathroom.
This observation is the crux of the problem:
"This is the unspoken reality in the LGBTQ legal and advocacy world: there is no institutional support for detransitioners. The same energy, money, and political capital that fast-tracks trans identities vanishes when people decide to step away...Why?
I think it’s because detransitioners are inconvenient. They challenge the narrative that transition is always a triumph, that everyone who embarks on it finds their “true self,” and that medical and legal interventions are unquestionably positive. Detransitioners remind us that people change their minds...
This has real-world consequences. Health insurance systems, medical providers, legal entities — all of them rely on official documents. When those documents carry inaccurate information, it leads to denial of care, legal roadblocks, and emotional distress."
Yes!
But detransitioners have become more than just inconvenient. Detransition begins after medicalization, which means genital surgeries and cross-sex hormones that go horribly wrong and can cause crippling side effects. Insurance companies have largely evaded paying doctors for complex surgical revisions. For example, in 2023, despite the passionate testimonies of detransitioners, Texas Republicans were unsuccessful in passing a bill that would have required insurance companies to cover medically injured detransitioners.
https://corinnacohn.substack.com/p/texas-bill-to-protect-detransitioners
By representing detransitioners' right to correct their birth certificates, Lambda would implicitly be siding with them in an ideological battle that could result in economic burdens on insurance companies whose goal is to make money, not spend it. This, Lambda does not want to do. Once again, ideology trumps biology.
Is it possible that simply claiming to be a male transitioning to a female, without mention of of the prior 'transition' would have been successfully supported and effected?
I really expect it would.
I advocate for truthful, factual birth certificates. https://thetranstrain.substack.com/p/truthful-and-factual-birth-certificates
Structurally abandoning those they helped hustle down the path of medicalization. Complete disengagement.
This whole opinion piece is based on the assumption that LL didn’t take her case because she’s a detransitioner. However, we don’t know that as fact. Additionally, perhaps LL doesn’t concentrate on detransitioners—it’s not part of their business model. So what? As a business owner, I turn away business that doesn’t fit in my lane all the time. Maybe someone needs to grow a similar network foe detransitioners. Now, before I get blasted, let me say I have a trans-identified adult child going on over a decade and I am extremely concerned with our society’s affirmative only approach. However, I view this piece as an outrage enhancer vs addressing actual issues with facts. This bothers me just as much because it distracts us from what we need to pay attention to.
Oh the Courage Coalition is helping this detransitioner and I did put her in contact with someone at the actual attorney generals office. We are there for detransitioners. It is outrageous that Lamda Legal doesn’t vet their cases better.
Oh, the absolute irony to see you use the same arguments trans activists have been using for decades, but to not have the capacity to understand the parallels.
I would do pro bono work for a detransitioner, but how would I find them?