Illinois advances bill to make trans birth certificate changes easier
The US state of Illinois has advanced a bill which would make it easier for trans people to change the gender stated on their birth certificate.
The state’s House passed the proposal on Thursday with 63 votes to 43.
It would mean trans people could change their legal gender with authorisation from a medical professional.
They would have to confirm that they had undergone appropriate medical treatment, rather than having to prove gender reassignment surgery, as is required under current law.
The measure is sponsored by Representative Greg Harris, a Democrat from Chicago.
Harris says that the proposal would bring the state law in line with accepted medical standards.
Around a dozen other US states no longer require surgery to allow trans people to legally change their genders.
But LGBT activists say that governments need to do more to accept that not all trans people will want or be able to afford surgery.
Republicans in Illinois have hit back at the legislation, saying that the current legislation goes far enough.
Earlier this year, New York reported that hundreds of trans people had legally changed gender since the state made the process simpler.
The Green Party in the UK has called for transgender teens to be allowed to change their gender without parental consent.
A new gender recognition bill was submitted to the Irish Parliament on the International Transgender Day of Visibility, vastly simplifying the process of legally changing gender.
LGBT activists in Ukraine are pleased to see revisions to the rules which allow trans people to legally change their gender without forced sterilisation.
The gender recognition process for trans people could get a lot simpler under proposed new rules.
But many say there is still a long way to go in many countries for the gender recognition process to be fair.
