CA on the Way to Becoming First State to Officially Recognize a Third Option for Gender
No surprise here; just more of California being California.
According to The Christian Post, a California State Senator has introduced a bill into the legislature that would allow for a third gender identification option, in addition to the apparently old and boring ���male��� and ���female��� identifiers.
The senator, Toni Atkins, introduced Senate Bill 179, The Gender Recognition Act of 2017, last week, along with fellow senator Scott Weiner. The bill would allow for the adding of a third ���non-binary information marker��� on documents pertaining to the establishment and verification of official identity, like birth certificates and driver���s licenses.
As detailed in the Legislative Counsel���s Digest, ���Existing law authorizes a person who was born in this state and who has undergone clinically appropriate treatment for the purpose of gender transition to obtain a new birth certificate from the State Registrar.
���This bill would delete the requirement that an applicant have undergone any treatment and instead would authorize a person to submit to the State Registrar an application to change gender on the birth certificate and an affidavit attesting, under penalty of perjury, that the request for a change of gender is to conform the person���s legal gender to the person���s gender identity and not for any fraudulent purpose. By requiring the affidavit to be attested to under penalty of perjury, this bill would create a crime, and thus impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would authorize the change of gender on the new birth certificate to be female, male, or nonbinary.���
The Post points out that not everyone in California is on board, however. Jonathan Keller, CEO of the California Family Council, tore into the proposed legislation, saying the bill was simply propagating ���a falsehood.���
���While we are sympathetic to the difficulties facing those experiencing gender dysphoria, we believe government documents need to reflect biological facts for identification and medical purposes," Keller said.
���Laws like this will simply erase any meaningful gender definitions, if being male or female is completely divorced from biological facts. I hope the legislature rejects this bill quickly.���
By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large
