Transgender Woman Wins Right To Change Birth Certificate

April 11th, 2009 • Related • Filed Under

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — A transgender Kansas woman won the right from a state appeals court in San Francisco on Friday to change the gender on her California birth certificate from male to female.

Gigi Marie Somers, who now lives in Kansas, was born in Los Angeles in 1941 and was identified on her birth certificate as a male.

In 2005, she underwent gender reassignment surgery and changed her name to her current name.

When she sought to change her birth certificate, however, she was told that Kansas law does not permit issuance of a new birth certificate to reflect a change of gender.

Somers then came to San Francisco to petition the Superior Court for a new birth certificate.

But a court commissioner denied the request on the ground that Somers was not a California resident and a state law that allows a transgender person to obtain a new birth certificate requires that the petition be filed in a person’s county of residence.

In Friday’s decision, a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeal overturned the lower court ruling and said the requirement could not be enforced because it violated Somers’ constitutional right to equal treatment.

Justice James Marchiano wrote, “We hold that this requirement impermissibly denies California-born transgender individuals who reside outside of California the same right to issuance of a new California birth certificate as California-born transgender individuals residing in California.”

The panel also said the requirement violated the constitutionally guaranteed right of interstate travel.

The court noted that a bill now pending in the state Legislature would amend the law to provide that a petition for a new birth certificate can be filed either in the county of residence or in the county where the person was born.

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Comment by Gypsy on 11 December 2009:

I think this is a fantastic victory! It sets in motion a victory over individual states ratifying laws contrary to Federal law. I believe many states have passed anti-trans laws in a fear based reaction to Federal constitutional wrights to all persons. This, Judge Marchiano, of the Court of Appeals has used constitutional law to fight state law. This type of state judicial action is the muscle needed to pull our country and peoples together into ONE nation.
Next I hope to see the judicial branch push for the legislative branch, as in bills being passed to reflect the peoples of our countries constitutional beliefs, to affect the laws of individual states.
I have hope, with this report, that this generation may see a people united in a common respect to the individual differences that make us as a whole such a wonderful people to be part of, One Nation, under God, indivisible, with LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL. Wave your flag here.