Recently, bills have been passed that proposes birth certificates to have third sex or gender. This is what most would call non-binary, or commonly associated with the letter “X”, and the response has been mostly positive. There are some though that took one step further. In some places, they opt not to reflect this in the birth certificate completely, and this has encouraged many to order your California birth certificate. It is a positive change, in spite of what many people have been saying.
Let us dissect this change and see how this has affected the lifestyle of many.
The concepts of sex and gender have commonly been used interchangeably, and to be honest, anyone could easily fall for this trap. Sex normally pertains the identification of an individual’s identity based on biological factors. This includes their genitalia, hormones, and chromosomes – X chromosome for the women, and Y for the men. Gender, on the other hand, talks about what your social status is. It is what you would identify yourself in society, and this ends up being your preference as an individual.
Both these concepts do not always fall neatly between the male and female category. For example, there are those who are “confusing”, for lack of a better term, biologically. These normally are seen in individuals who may be born with both genitalia, being called as a hermaphrodite. Then, strictly speaking, there are those who have unusual chromosome patterns.
At the end of the day, even the objective side of the two cannot even determine itself objectively. That is why, when they are whether they are male or female, they may end being forced to step out of their comfort zone and identify themselves as someone they are not.
By taking this away from birth certificates, they are truly able to identify themselves as the person who they truly are, and by doing so, they are able to truly feel a sense of freedom. Besides, by taking this off from birth certificates, it would not affect most individuals. It is just a piece of paper that tells society that you exist. This, to this day, may be irrelevant.
In any case, a huge change will always receive strong enough opposition. The same is for this one. Mostly, the strong push back is coming from the Catholic society, which expresses that if that is taken out of the birth certificate, then it defeats the purpose of such a legal document. To those who say so, we say this: It does not.
A birth certificate only exists to detail your existence in society. Other than that, it does not basically serve a purpose. It is only reflected on there due to old values which the world was once founded upon. Today, it should be more flexible, and this is the first step towards that positive change in attitude among people in the community.
Hopefully, these changes will encourage people to order your California birth certificate. It might not be a huge change now, but it is because freedom is never a small issue to be put aside.