Residents of Puerto Rico who claim they are “nonbinary” will now be permitted to have an identifier on their birth certificates.
The Supreme Court of Puerto Rico ruled on May 30 that “nonbinary” people have a right to differentiate themselves from “binary” people and could now choose “X” for their gender on their birth certificates. The decision stemmed from a lawsuit filed by six people in Puerto Rico seeking to change their birth certificates’ genders because they believed it did not align with their gender identities, according to Fox News.
The plaintiffs argued that Puerto Rico’s birth certificate policy violated “the right to equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.”
In its decision, Puerto Rico’s Supreme Court emphasized its duty to ensure “equal protections …under the law.”
“Since 2018, transgender individuals in Puerto Rico have been permitted to amend the gender marker on their birth certificate, from either male to female or from female to male,” read the court’s filing. “But the Plaintiffs in this case are nonbinary, meaning that their gender identity is neither male nor female. Their request is simple: to be permitted to have a gender marker on their birth certificate that reflects their true gender identity, like everyone else.”
“The Court thus finds that there is no rational basis to deny Plaintiffs’ request,” noted the filing. “The current Birth Certificate Policy of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico arbitrarily distinguishes between binary and nonbinary individuals and subjects nonbinary individuals to disfavored treatment, without any justification for doing so. In such cases, it is the duty of the federal courts to intervene, to guarantee the equal protection of all persons under the law.”
The court ordered Puerto Rico’s government to “amend the Application for Gender Change form to include an option to select an ‘X’ as one’s gender marker on one’s birth certificate.”
“In doing so, Puerto Rico will join at least seventeen other states who already permit residents to include a nonbinary or gender-neutral sex or gender marker on their birth certificates,” the court noted.
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The decision came seven years after a U.S. federal court ruled that Puerto Rico’s government must grant transgender people the opportunity to change their birth certificates to “X” selected for their gender if they desired, the Associated Press reported.
Gov. Jennifer Gonzalez (R) Colon said that Puerto Rico would comply with the ruling but was waiting for recommendations from its Justice Department before proceeding with implementation.
This article was originally published at www.washingtonexaminer.com
