OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt signed a bill Tuesday that explicitly prohibits the use of unmarked gender marks on state birth certificates, according to ban experts is the first of its kind its in the Village.
The bill follows an agreement last year by the Oklahoma State Department of Health in a civil lawsuit allowing non -binary options. The birth certificate in this case was issued to an Oregon resident born in Oklahoma whom he sued after the agency first denied the request. Non -binary people are not distinguished by traditional male or female sexual assignments.
Many states offer male-only or female-only options on birth certificates, but Oklahoma was the first to implement a non-binary ban, according to Lambda Legal, a civil rights group that claims Oklahoma.
According to the National Center for Transgender Equality, currently 15 states and the District of Columbia specifically allow for the scoring of gender indicators outside of a male or female. That number will increase on July 1, when the new Vermont Statute takes effect.
“People are free to believe what they want about their identity, but science has discovered that people are biologically male or female at birth,” said Sheila Dils, of the Oklahoma House of Representatives, who sponsored the design. law. “We want clarity and credibility in official state documents.” The information should be based on established medical facts and not on an ever-evolving social conversation. “
Oklahoma Elected a Nation in 2020 The first openly non -binary legislator In the nation, Oklahoma City Democrat Maure Turner said it was painful to isolate colleagues of different genders.
“I consider it excessive and strange to use force in this body to write this law and try to pass it, when almost none of them live like us,” Turner tweeted on the day of the proposal. law.
Republicans in Oklahoma have filed several bills targeting transgender and non-transgender people this year. The governor signed the bill earlier this year to Ban Transgender Girls from Playing on Women’s Sports Teams.
The U.S. State Department recently announced it issued its first passport with an “X” indicating gender, marking a milestone in recognizing the rights of people not identified as male or female, and providing for this option which will be offered more widely next year.
Doctors and scientists say that sex and gender are not the same. While sex is usually about anatomy, gender identity is more about the inner feeling of being a man, a woman, or somewhere in between, despite physical anatomy, Drs. Jason Rafferty, Rhode Island pediatrician and child psychiatrist at Hasbro Children’s Hospital. Leading author of transgender politics at the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Source: Huffpost