By Victor Ochieng
California Governor Jerry Brown has appended his signature to a first of a kind legislation that now allows residents to choose a third gender identity in their IDs, birth certificate, and driving licenses.
The Governor signed the Gender Recognition Act, Senate Bill 179, into law, a development that now makes it easier for those seeking to change their gender. Anyone seeking to do so will no longer be required to bring a document from a physician that confirms that he or she has indeed gone through “clinical treatment.”
“As the LGBT community — but especially the trans community — is under assault in this country, California needs to go in the opposite direction and embrace the trans community and support the trans community and modernize these laws,” read a statement by State Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), a co-sponsor of the bill alongside Senator Toni Atkins (D-San Diego).
In a tweet, the legislator said, “I’m proud of what we got done for #LGBT people this year, eg, protecting LGBT seniors, modernizing #HIV criminal laws, supporting trans ppl.” Explaining the significance of the bill, the legislator said, “Society forces people into boxes & tells us who we’re supposed to be. SB 179 helps people of all gender identities be their authentic selves.”
While other states such as Washington and Oregon have made strides to make it easier for citizens to use non-binary gender identity, California goes down in history as the first to put it in law.
Gov. Brown also signed into law a legislation that makes it possible for transgender persons to change their names while in prison, something proponents say makes it a lot easier for such people to process their new identities as soon as they regain their freedom.
Several other countries are already making steps to allow citizens to identify outside the binary gender of male or female. These include Nepal, Canada, Pakistan, Australia and the United Kingdom.
What these developments say is that more people are coming to reality with the fact that transgender people need to be given room to identify with a gender they’re comfortable with. At the same time, it shows just how much the LGBTQ community has done to sell their agenda, which is to be free to practice a s*xual orientation of choice and identify with whichever gender they like.
Don’t be surprised to see more American states following suit.
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