A very serious line is about to be crossed, in which public records are to be falsified as a matter of policy. Of course, like most terrible ideas proposed as policy, this one is cloaked in the garb of compassion. But it is never a good idea for governments to deliberately lie in matters of public record.

The New York Times reports,

Separating anatomy from what it means to be a man or a woman, New York City is moving forward with a plan to let people alter the sex on their birth certificate even if they have not had sex—change surgery.

Under the rule being considered by the city's Board of Health, which is likely to be adopted soon, people born in the city would be able to change the documented sex on their birth certificates by providing affidavits from a doctor and a mental health professional laying out why their patients should be considered members of the opposite sex, and asserting that their proposed change would be permanent.

Applicants would have to have changed their name and shown that they had lived in their adopted gender for at least two years, but there would be no explicit medical requirements.

Sex is a physical reality extending to the chromosomal level. If you have two x chromosomes, you are female. If you have an x and a y, you are male. It doesn't matter what surgical mutilation (or "correction," if you will) is undertaken, chromosomes determine the sex of a human being.

So—called "gender reassignment", in which people get to adopt the identity of the other sex is an accepted practice among the segment of our society which dominates the liberal institutions of communications, education, and government personnel policies. It is one thing to allow people to pretend to be the other sex because they like the role better. Many of us can tolerate that quite well as a matter of accommodation to others' preferences.

But it is quite another thing for governments to enter the fantasy realm and pretend that a birth produced a boy when it plainly produced a girl. Pretending that reality is as we wish it to be can only bring disaster. Self—delusion elevated to policy wil corrode the public's faith in government, and lead to no end of lawsuits, personal clashes, and other struggles. The sex divide is a fundamental reality of life. We don't get to change certain things. I wish I were 4 or 5 inches taller.

Thomas Lifson   11 7 06

Update: D.M. Giangreco writes:

Perhaps you can ask your doctor to add 4 or 5 inches to the figure in your medical records.   If he is reluctant, you could always supply additional documentation paralleling the NYC requirements: "affidavits from a doctor and a mental health professional laying out why you should be considered five inches taller, and asserting that the proposed change would be permanent."

Update: Two reader letters. The second one is just precious. I hope it isn't a friend ribbing me.

But just think of the possibilities here! If this law makes it to Manchester, New Hampshire, I could have my date of birth changed to make me

25 again, I could have my birthplace changed to London so I would be eligible for Britain's (strangling) national health system for free, and, best of all, I could change my father's name to George Soros so I could file for my financial rights as an illegitimate child when he kicks the bucket and leaves that fortune up for grabs. (Assuming he hasn't spent it all saving the world from conservatives and Christians, of course....)

Boy, life is startin' to look pretty darn good! Let 'er rip!

 

C. S. Baillie

Wilson, NC

*********

 

Editor,

Perhaps Miss Lifson can tell us how she knows what her appropriate gender role is? Does she have documentation stating exactly what her chromosome configuration is? Or perhaps her sex was assigned the same way 99.99% of all people were assigned. If her genitals looked like a penis she was assigned male, if they looked like a vagina she was assigned female.

It makes sense for sex assignment to work that way throughout a person's lifetime. About 2% of all folks are born with some form of genital anomalie, does Miss Lifson have special insight about those cases? I suggest she look into the meaning of CAH and CAIS.

As far as "gender role" goes, does it really make a difference to Miss Lifson what folks wear or whether they call themselves a man or a woman. Which state has a law that specifies "gender roles" for males or females? If there is, can Miss Lifson tell us what those roles are?

Cheers,

Glenda Sharp