Spain eases law for Transsexuals.

[peggygee]

In the United States, driver's licenses are issued by the states, not by the federal government. States also issue voluntary identification cards for non-drivers. States set the rules for what data is on the card and what documents must be provided in order to obtain one. States also maintain databases of licensed drivers and ID-card holders.

After May 11, 2008, "a Federal agency may not accept, for any official purpose, a driver's license or identification card issued by a state to any person unless the state is meeting the requirements" specified in the Real ID Act. States remain free to also issue non-complying licenses and ID's, so long as these have a unique design and a clear statement that they cannot be accepted for any Federal identification purpose. The federal Transportation Security Administration is responsible for security check-in at airports, so bearers of non-compliant documents would no longer be able to travel on common carrier aircraft.

The national license/ID standards cover:

What data must be included on the card;
What documentation must be presented before a card can be issued; and
How the states must share their databases.
Strictly speaking, many of these requirements are not new. They replace similar language in Section 7212 of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 (Public Law 108-45, which had not yet gone into effect before being repealed by the Real ID Act.


[edit] Data that must be included on the license or ID card
Each card must include, at a minimum:

The person's full legal name.
The person's date of birth.
The person's sex.
The person's driver's license or identification card number.
A photograph of the person's face.
The person's address of principal residence.
The person's signature.
Physical security features designed to prevent tampering, counterfeiting, or duplication of the document for fraudulent purposes.
A common machine-readable technology, with defined minimum data elements (the details of which are not spelled out, but left to the Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Secretary of Transportation and the states, to regulate).

[edit] Documentation required before issuing a license or ID card
Before a card can be issued, the applicant must provide the following documentation:

A photo ID, or a non-photo ID that includes full legal name and birthdate.
Documentation of birthdate.
Documentation showing name and principal residence address

[peggygee]

These sites may be useful in having your documents changed:

http://www.tsroadmap.com/reality/legalindex.html


http://www.lambdalegal.org/cgi-bin/i...ml?record=1164


http://www.drbecky.com/birthcert.html

[peggygee]

By law, transexuals in the United States can obtain a passport that says "female" if they submit a copy of the original certified surgical record showing they have had gender reassigment surgery. Otherwise they must have the gender present on their offical copy birth certificate. This presents a problem as some states do not issue post op transgender persons new birth certificates, but only "ammended" ones or worse yet ones with no gender at all.

The problem is that one camp says that birth certificates are documents stating the facts as they occured at birth, not what happens later.

There are two instances in which a US passport may have an 'F'
designation.

1. You are travelling to a foreign country to have SRS. In that
instance you will have an SRS posted on your passport for the
period of one year, after that your passport will be void.

2. Once you have had an SRS you will need to submit the letter
from your surgeon attesting that you have had SRS. You will
also need to submit your court ordered name change paperwork.

Here is the link for the State Department - Passport Division

http://travel.state.gov/passport/get...ting_2654.html

[peggygee]

10/14/06-10/16/06

New York City seeks to make gender transitioning easier


New York City wants to make it easier for transgender New Yorkers to switch the sex listed on their birth certificate, an important issue for transgender people in an era when official identity documents have become more essential in everyday life.

Under present city rules, only people who can show proof of a surgery qualify for getting a revised birth certificate. Even then, the only change made is the elimination of any reference to gender on the document.

The new plan, unveiled late last month, would let birth records reflect the new gender for the first time. It would also allow changes for people who haven't had genital surgery but could show substantial proof that they have undertaken other steps to irrevocably alter their gender identity, like undergoing hormone therapy.

The policy change is one that advocates for New York's sizable transgender population have requested for years but which has taken on greater significance in a post–September 11 world.

New Yorkers need to show a picture ID to enter office towers, air terminals, public monuments, and all sorts of government buildings. They need them to apply for a job or buy beer at a neighborhood deli. The trouble comes when someone inspects those documents and notices that a person's listed gender doesn't appear to match the way they look and dress.

"That can be a very dangerous situation for a transgender person," said Cole Thaler, transgender rights attorney for the national legal aid group Lambda Legal. "In today's post-9/11 climate, where everyone is more worried than usual about things like fraud or identity theft, it can be particularly difficult for a transgender person."

Thaler said having a birth certificate with a gender that matches a person's appearance will ease the way to getting other government records, including passports, drivers licenses, and Social Security records.

Lorna Thorpe, deputy commissioner of New York City's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, called the current system "outdated."

"A lot of transgender persons use different techniques to switch genders," she said. Some try hormones. A smaller number undergo surgery—in part because not everyone is medically capable of undergoing the procedure. "Some do neither but essentially make a lifestyle change," Thorpe said.

All but three states now allow people who have had a sex change to get a new birth certificate, and New York City's vital records division has done so since 1971.

New York City now issues about a dozen of the revised birth certificates a year. No estimate was available on how many more might be issued under the new rules, which could be approved by the city's Board of Health as soon as December.

Of the states that allow similar changes to birth certificates, almost all currently require proof of gender-reassignment surgery.

Only one state, Tennessee, has a law expressly prohibiting a change of gender on a birth certificate, but Ohio and Idaho also won't allow the change because of court rulings or as a matter of administrative policy. (AP)

[torakiki]

Spain is doing great steps in civil rights.
Unfortunately in Italy we have the pope, the vatican and their influence on politics is biiiig.

I don't think that the government will be able to introduce some laws to assure some rights to gay couples, including couples ts-man which are gay for them.
I'm not talking about wedding, or about sexual identity on documents for ts, but just about some rights that most countries in the western world give to gay couples.

[SarahG]

Spain is doing great steps in civil rights.
Unfortunately in Italy we have the pope, the vatican and their influence on politics is biiiig.

I don't think that the government will be able to introduce some laws to assure some rights to gay couples, including couples ts-man which are gay for them.
I'm not talking about wedding, or about sexual identity on documents for ts, but just about some rights that most countries in the western world give to gay couples.

Italy isn't the only one... my friends SOB have all kinds of horror stories about how the dominate catholic influence has dictated the laws of places like Mexico when it comes to stuff like rape, abortion, divorce etc.

As to the NYC thing, the local gov of NYC seems to regularly forget that they are part of NYS... and are not a seperate state (as much as they might want to be otherwise). In a way its a good thing, I can easily see rural central, upstate, western NY being a red state if NYC wasn't around to balance it out some. I doubt the NYC thing will end up holding up unless the whole state goes in the same direction... and that I find most unlikely.

But with Pataki gone, who knows what will happen.

Lets not forget that in western & central NY- its hard for trans people to get their names changed, let alone something like the sex part of identification papers.

The conservative judges in central & western NY usually require SRS to get your name changed (and yet just TRY to get srs without changing your name!)... even though the law has no such requirement. If you're married they often require a divorce. Even with a good lawyer such name changes is difficult in that part of the state.

[Vicki Richter]

It isn't so difficult to get an updated drivers license in California or Arizona. In fact, it really just requires a name change and some letter from a doctor. What I found was, getting my DL changed in Cali made my license good for a year or two at a time (pretty sure it was a year at a time for updates). Then moving to AZ locked me in for 40 years or something.

The issue is with social security. They require a letter stating SRS or permanently altering of the genitals. Essentially SS will out you to your employers when there is a mismatch in the system between what the person is reporting, and what SS has on their file. It kind of makes it fucked up for a pre-op TS in the mainstream workforce.

I have found a few friends who have gotten their genders changed on their passport simply by having a new drivers license stating their new gender. It is hit or miss depending upon what the post-offices know about the law. Since the post offices are inexperienced in this sort of thing, it's a good time to get one. When the ID act kicks in, they will probably throw us all in the pokey for lying on a government document.

I don't have a passport yet so I guess I'm in the clear.

[peggygee]

As to the NYC thing, the local gov of NYC seems to regularly forget that they are part of NYS... and are not a seperate state (as much as they might want to be otherwise). In a way its a good thing, I can easily see rural central, upstate, western NY being a red state if NYC wasn't around to balance it out some. I doubt the NYC thing will end up holding up unless the whole state goes in the same direction... and that I find most unlikely.

But with Pataki gone, who knows what will happen.

Lets not forget that in western & central NY- its hard for trans people to get their names changed, let alone something like the sex part of identification papers.

The conservative judges in central & western NY usually require SRS to get your name changed (and yet just TRY to get srs without changing your name!)... even though the law has no such requirement. If you're married they often require a divorce. Even with a good lawyer such name changes is difficult in that part of the state, and that I say speaking from expirence.

Although I live in PA, my legal residence is in NY because my cars aren't street legal down here

New York City

New York City has its own separate Bureau of Vital Statistics. New York City will issue a new birth certificate rather than amend the old one.

NOTE: The new birth certificate will list the new name but will not have a listing for sex at all. That section is simply omitted.

You will need:

a) Court Order granting name change (Original or certified copy)
b) Detailed Surgical Operative Letter from SRS surgeon
c) Post Operative Examination signed by a physician other than SRS surgeon
d) Post Operative Psychiatric Evaluation (??)
e) $15
f) Copy of valid photo ID

Contact:

Edna Timbers
etimbers@health.nyc.gov

or:

Steven Schwartz, Ph.D.
Registrar and Director
Office of Vital Statistics and Epidemiology
sschwart@dohlan.nycnet.ci.nyc.ny.us
sschwart@health.nyc.gov

New York State

See the 2006 update on the Transsexual Road Map site:

http://www.tsroadmap.com/reality/nam...rtificate.html

New York State will change both name and sex, and will issue a new birth certificate.

New York requires more documentation than most states. You must first complete an application which can be obtained from the following address:

State of New York
Department of Health, Vital Records Section
Corning Tower
Empire State Plaza
Albany NY 12237

Return the completed application, with fees as indicated on the application, and the following documents (all "original or certified copy"):
- the court order for name change, bearing the court seal, certified by the clerk of the court. Certified proof of publication is also required. The court order must include original name, date and place of birth.
- the letter from your SRS surgeon, specifying date, place, and type of procedure
- the actual OPERATIVE REPORT from your SRS
- a letter from your primary therapist "documenting true transsexualism or inappropriate sexual identification."
- a letter from your endocrinologist or other medical physician "concerning hormonal, chromosomal or endocrinological information."

Once these documents are received, a "medical review" will be performed, and your new certificate issued. Processing takes approximately three months. One certified copy will be provided following the amendment; any additional copies are $15.00 each.

Mr. Peter Carucci
Director
Vital Records Section
pmc02@health.state.ny.us

Updated information June 2002 for New York State:

It turns out that NYS has two different forms of birth certificate:

(i) a regular "Certificate of Birth" that contains your name, sex, date of birth, time of birth, county/city/town of birth, parent's names, ages and social security numbers, mother's maiden name and address at the date of birth, whether this was a twin birth, etc.

(ii) a much shorter "Certification of Birth" that the Dept of Vital Stats internally calls the "short form", which only contains your name, sex, county/city/town of birth, and date of birth.

The "short form" isn't mentioned anywhere in the paperwork, but is available by simply asking for the "short form" (it costs the same $15 as the long form) when ordering. The short form carries an impressed seal and serves as a legally valid birth certificate just as well as the long form.

The New York State short form can be very useful in cases where both first and last name were legally changed - because it eliminates the incongruity of the child on the certificate having a different last name from the parents (it is also useful in cases where the "father is unknown", etc). Quite a few postops face this problem, which causes unwanted outings if they ever need to use a regular birth certificate.

[peggygee]

This link will take reader to the UK Government website
that deals with Transsexual Identity matters.

http://www.grp.gov.uk/

[TJT]

Spain has changed in three decades. I first went there,the mid-70's, Franco was still alive. Gay men were imprisoned then. I can't imagine how they treated transsexuals? Sheesh,I was strip searched and interrogated because I had long hair.

The last time I was there,the late 80's,it was like a different country. Talk about change for the better.