2.2 Gender Identity

There are innumerable reasons why a person may seek to correct their name or gender maker. No reason is right, no reason is wrong. Outside of marriage and divorce, the most common reason for someone to seek corrections to their birth record is in fulfillment of a legal transition. 

A person’s transition can take innumerable paths and steps. No transition path is right, no transition path is wrong. When an individual chooses to pursue gender transition, it is often because they recognize that their assigned gender identity does not align with their experienced gender identity. A person’s assigned gender identity, typically as male or female, has historically been tied by law directly to their reproductive anatomy as it is perceived at their birth. A person’s experienced gender identity does not have any guaranteed relation to a person’s anatomy. Likewise, a person’s gender identity has no guaranteed relation to a person’s sexual orientation (the sort of romantic or physical attraction they do or don’t have toward others) or their gender expression (how masculine or feminine someone appears to others). All of these concepts exist on a spectrum and can (and frequently do) change at any time in small or large ways over the course of someone’s life. It is not the role of the attorney to opine or pass judgment on the appropriateness or accuracy of anyone’s gender identity, gender expression, or sexual orientation.