In what is being hailed as a significant advancement for transgender rights, California legislators have introduced a bill that would make the state the first in the nation to create a third gender option on driver's licenses, birth certificates and state IDs, The Mercury News reported.
LGBT advocates say the timing of the legislation is important, as many fear President Donald Trump will get rid of some of the protections that former President Barack Obama enacted for those who don't have traditional gender identities, such as instructing schools to permit students to use the bathrooms of their choice.
The Gender Recognition Act would add "nonbinary" to the list of male and female genders on state identification documents. State Sen. Toni Atkins, one of the sponsors of the bill, told The Washington Free Beacon that it "will help them avoid the discrimination and harassment that too many of these residents face in their daily lives."
The proposed legislation would remove the current requirement that those wanting to change their birth certificate must provide proof from a doctor that they have undergone "clinically appropriate treatment for the purpose of gender transition" and instead allow individuals to change their gender without a hearing, if no one files an objection.
The bill does require individuals to sign an affidavit that stipulates, under penalty of perjury, that the legal gender change is to conform to the individual's gender identity and is "not made for any fraudulent purpose."
Speaking about the importance of the legislation, Laura Nelson, associate professor of gender and women's studies at the University of California, Berkeley, told The Daily Californian: "Obviously, this is just one thing, and the struggle to gain both legal recognition as well as social respect is long and complicated. Legal rights are not the end goal, but they're an important tool."
The legislation is not expected to reach the full California Senate for a vote until spring, according to Atkins' office, because it first must be referred to a policy committee, which will probably happen only in March.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.