THE GUERRILLA ANGEL REPORT — Yes, I’m talking about you, Judge Bill Graves. I had a splash of water thrown on my face when I was reminded earlier today of Argentina’s simple 15-day wait period, (almost) no questions asked, legal gender ID change policy.
I first wrote about this back in June:
Argentina’s groundbreaking gender-identity law puts those of all other countries to shame, especially including the United States. Simply put, if you feel you are of a different gender from the one you born with, then that’s good enough to get your gender ID officially changed in Argentina. A stunningly smart step into the future.
In addition, according to a report by National Public Radio, if a transgender person in Argentina wants SRS, the health system there will cover it.
There’s a reason we’ve a foot in the 19th Century in the United States — we continue to elect Representatives in Congress who will never vote favorably on any pro-trans legislation, never mind passing a national law permitting a 15-day, no questions asked, gender ID changes.
Your vote matters. So why not vote trans first?
(Graves was re-elected unchallenged in 2010. There’s plenty of time for a savvy person in Oklahoma to mount a challenge for the position.)
No More ‘Lying’: Law Bolsters Transgender Argentines : NPR.
More on Judge Bill Graves: http://lexiecannes.wordpress.com/2012/09/28/aclu-appeals-judges-you-cant-change-what-god-gave-you-order-for-transgender-name-change/
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Filed under: Discrimination, Equality, Civil Rights, Judicial, Courts, Politics, Transgender, Transsexual, Trans, Argentina, bible, gender ID, judge bill graves, oklahoma, srs
I long to live in a nation that puts humans first. That ain’t the USA, the nation I served.
I like that. We CAN be a nation that puts people first. We just have to elect the right people. We’ve done it before.
Yes, we can! But, we have to show up to Vote. Check out the resource; “Voting While Trans” available at the National Center for Trans Equality (NCTE) website. Due to new I.D. laws 25,000 transgender Americans may be denied the Right to Vote!
Liz, I was going to write about that but the NCTE thing is pretty saturated on FB and elsewhere — but that’s a good thing!
Gonna post this link here cause i suspect that peeps have moved on from the original post where it would be slightly more relevant. I’ve been fighting this name change issue for some while in the UK and, if anything, we seem to be suffering from an importation of US bureaucratic issues.
Here’s the UK state of play – a big document for anyone interested in such stuff – and i’d be very intersted in how it compares to the US approach: http://janefae.wordpress.com/2011/03/28/names-white-paper-available-here/
Continuing my pedantic streak, i’d say that Judge Graves may be correct in a very narrow sense, as the same issue appears in UK law. A judge way back (Vaisey) ruled that one could possibly not ever change one’s “Christian” name, by which he meant “baptismal name” without possibly an Act of Parliament – and maybe not even then. Cause THAT aspect of naming is to do with religion and therefore beyond human law.
That’s fine. As far as UK society is concerned, we’ve just moved on. Keep your baptismal name: but you can still be called officially whatever you wish to be, so long as you’re not aiming to commit fraud in so doing.
France has roughly similar: there is a registered name that takes a Presidential decree to change: but for day to day usage, you can be called pretty much what you wish. And that’s legal.
Oh…and debate over here is just about the process of name change and id and security issues: none of that “you can’t change your gender” shit….
jane
Thanks for this comment Jane. It’s better I find out Graves may have had some legal standing, however small, now than to be surprised later if the OK appeals court use that exact same thinking to uphold Graves’ ruling.
Couple of other thoughts:why on earth did this ever end up in court. Surely its just a bureaucratic process to change name…and if so, how come thosands of married women aren’t in court every year?
Cause the naming conventions used in the US do not reflect the naming conventions used in the New Testament, so even if women are allowed to change name on marriage,why is failure to adhere to NT standards not an issue with this judge?
jane
And finally, i suspect we in the UK have a lot to “thanks” the US for. Because the legal status of names in the US appears to be different and that is why Harry Benjamin guidelines took up the idea that changing name was important to rle and transition…
…and thatg same thinking has just been swallowed by UK gender identity services without the good doctors involved realising that the legal name change beast is totally different here to what it is in the US…
jane