State asks court if it can change birth certificate of transgender teen
TALLAHASSEE -- The Florida Department of Health has asked a judge to decide whether a state law that allows it to change the gender on a birth certificate applies in the case of a transgender teenager from Broward County who received court approval to change both his name and gender.
“This particular request presents an unprecedented issue for the department,” wrote DOH lawyer Nichole Geary in a petition filed Tuesday in the Second Judicial Circuit Court in Leon County.
The parents of the unnamed 14-year-old asked a Broward court earlier this year to allow the name and birth certificate change for their transgender son. The child’s birth certificate identifies him as female, but his parents say the youth identifies himself as male and wishes to live his life with a male name and male characteristics.
A Broward judge ordered the name change and added a handwritten note ordering the agency “to change the gender identifier for the child,” Geary said in the petition. The judge also sealed the record.
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/broward/article90608472.html
