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 groundless accusations of fraud.

We need to ensure that trans New Yorkers, particularly trans people of color and low-income trans people who are already targeted by policing and criminalization, have access to the basic means of survival and safety from violence. Having access to gender-affirming identity documents is crucial.

Though the NYC birth certificate policy remains unchanged since 1971, our work over the last 12 years has paid off: In early October, New York City Council and the Department of Health (DOH) proposed a policy to make these necessary and urgent changes. Right now, City Council is accepting comments on the proposal. On Monday November 10, SRLP will participate in the City Council public hearing, and on Monday, November 17 at the DOH public hearing.

You can help us win this change by taking two minutes to sign our petition in support of the current proposal. Your signature will show City Council and the DOH that our community is behind this.

We are all too familiar with the reality that trans lives are cut short by violence and the negative health consequences stemming from persistent and severe discrimination. While there are many critical areas in which our community can organize to end the early deaths of low-income trans people and trans people of color, removing systemic barriers like New York City’s birth certificate surgery requirement is one key tactic toward ensuring our survival.

We need our community to live. With greater access to accurate identification, our community will face fewer obstacles to our ability to access safe employment, obtain stable housing, and work with informed and affirming healthcare providers. These are the basics.

Tell New York City that trans lives matter!

To read the complete Department of Health’s policy proposal, visit: http://rules.cityofnewyork.us/content/general-vital-statistics-provisions-article-207-section-20705-regarding-transgender-birth