NEW YORK, Nov. 7 (UPI) -- Health officials in New York appear poised to allow residents to officially change the gender on birth certificates, The New York Times reported.
A panel for the city's Board of Health spent four years studying the proposal, which appears set to be adopted by a board vote next month.
Officially changing gender would have several mandatory requirements, including proof applicants had lived in their adopted gender for at least two years and affidavits from a medical doctor and a mental health professional, the Times said. Having had transgender surgery is not a requirement.
However, consensus on the panel was not unanimous.
"They should not change the sex at birth, which is a factual record," Dr. Arthur Zitrin, a psychiatrist who was on the panel, told the Times. "If they wanted to change the gender for all the compelling reasons that they've given, it should be done perhaps with an asterisk."
Last month, the city's Metropolitan Transportation Authority agreed to let people define their own gender when deciding whether to use the men's or women's bathrooms.
