If you have a baby in New York City, you no longer have to assign it a gender at birth, thanks to a new bill signed into law Wednesday morning by NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio.
The bill will allow those seeking to describe themselves as “gender non-binary” to apply for new birth certificates that list their gender as “X” rather than “M” for male or “F” for female, but it also provides new parents with the ability to select a “third gender option” if they are choosing to raise their baby genderless.
According to CBS New York, city dwellers have been able to change their gender on any birth certificate issued by the city since 2014, but they had to produce “a letter from a physician or an affidavit by a licensed health care provider” proving they had undergone gender transition surgery. The new three-gender-option birth certificates don’t require a doctor’s note, or that the subject be specifically transgender.
“New Yorkers should be free to tell their government who they are, not the other way around,” de Blasio said at a press conference Wednesday morning. “This new legislation will empower all New Yorkers — especially our transgender and gender non-binary residents — to have birth certificates that better reflect their identity, and it furthers the city’s commitment to defending the rights of our LGBTQ community.”
The new three-gender birth certificates will reportedly be available immediately.