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Archive | Birth Certificates

15 Systematic Policies and Legal Rules That SRLP Helped Change

It’s been almost 15 years since SRLP was founded as a multi-racial, trans-led collective organization working for economic, racial, and gender justice. You might not know that over the last 15 years SRLP has worked to win the following important victories: Morrill v. Morrill, establishing a transgender parent’s right to visit her children. Doe v. […]

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SRLP Celebrates Community-Led Orgs on Our NYC Birth Certificate Victory

After more than 10 years of advocacy from community-led organizations, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has finally removed the requirement of surgery for changing the gender marker on a birth certificate. This is a huge victory. Since we opened our doors in 2002, SRLP has worked to remove this requirement. […]

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Take a Two Minute Action for Trans Lives!

Trans people born in New York City still can’t update our birth certificates to reflect our gender without undergoing invasive and often inaccessible surgeries. Without this change to our ID documents, trans people can face serious obstacles in accessing employment, housing, and basic services. Having documentation that doesn’t match our gender can often trigger bias, harassment, discrimination, or […]

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John Skwiersky

TUNE IN at 7 PM on 10/16: SRLP Attorney John Skwiersky to Speak on Birth Certificates with Corey Johnson on NY1

Tune in tonight to NY1’s Inside City Hall to hear a panel conversation with New York City Council Member Corey Johnson and SRLP Attorney John Skwiersky on issues facing low-income trans people and trans people of color, including a conversation on the NY City Council’s proposed birth certificate policy. Visit http://www.ny1.com/content/politics/inside_city_hall/ to stream it live. For more […]

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SRLP Commends New York City Council on Proposed Birth Certificate Policy

Since the Sylvia Rivera Law Project opened our doors in 2002, we have been at the forefront of the battle to make birth certificate changes more accessible to transgender people. Since 1970, New York City and State’s rules for a person changing their gender on their birth certificate had been very restrictive, requiring extensive evidence of invasive […]

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BREAKING: New York State Updates Birth Certificate Policy, Removing Surgical Requirement

The Sylvia Rivera Law Project is excited to announce that after ten years of hard work and negotiations New York State has made an important policy change that eliminates barriers to identity documents by allowing transgender New Yorkers to change the gender marker on their birth certificate without undergoing surgery. People born in New York […]

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SRLP Victory: Appellate Court Upholds the Right of Incarcerated Transgender People to Have Name Changed

May 31, 2012 After a two year legal struggle, New York courts uphold an incarcerated transgender woman’s right to change her name, reversing an earlier denial of her legal name change related to lack of medical evidence and the possibility of “confusion” ALBANY – The New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division, Third Judicial Department, […]

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STATE DEPARTMENT REMOVES SURGERY REQUIREMENT FOR CHANGING GENDER MARKERS ON U.S. PASSPORTS !!!!!

Big News!!! The State Department has removed the surgery requirement for passport gender marker changes. Starting June 10, “when a passport applicant presents a certification from an attending medical physician that the applicant has undergone appropriate clinical treatment for gender transition, the passport will reflect the new gender.” (see the full announcement here) SRLP has […]

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The fight for fair access to birth certificates continues…

On December 5, 2006, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene withdrew a proposed amendment to the Health Code that would have given access to accurate birth certificates to many transgender people. The amendment would have allowed new birth certificates to be issued to those who could prove with medical evidence they […]

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BOARD OF HEALTH PRESS RELEASE: BIRTH CERTIFICATE POLICY (DEC 2006)

BOARD OF HEALTH PRESS RELEASE: BIRTH CERTIFICATE POLICY (DEC 2006) FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Tuesday, December 5, 2006 (212) 788-5290 BOARD OF HEALTH MAKES NYC CONSISTENT WITH NEW YORK STATE AND MOST OF THE UNITED STATES BY ALLOWING SEX-SPECIFIC TRANSGENDER BIRTH CERTIFICATES Health Department Withdraws Proposal to Change Standard for Certifying Gender Change, Citing Broader Social […]

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