Her Campus at Manchester brings its week of LGBT+ content in honour of LGBT History Month to a close with great news for non-binary individuals. New Jersey residents can now change the gender on their birth certificates to ‘X’.
A bill passed in the state last year means residents are now offered a non-binary option on birth certificates. People are able to change to the new option without a note from a medical professional and parents can assign their newborn with the gender-neutral marker.
The law came into effect on February 1st and follows in the footsteps of California, Oregon, Washington state and, most recently, New York City in permitting a third gender.
On the law, which came into effect in NYC last month, the mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio, said the city was “a place where everyone can belong.”
“So many folks for so many years had to deal with documents that did not reflect their reality. I can only begin to imagine what that challenge was like, what that pain was like. That’s why Intro 954 is so important.”
“In this city, which has been the wellspring of the movement for equality for so long, the home of Stonewall and the modern LGBTQ movement, it is fitting that we lead the way here again.”
With the law now in effect in four states, alongside New York City, we can only hope that this is just the start of the progress the US is making for LGBT+ equality and that more states and cities follow suit.