New Zealand has enacted a self-identification law that makes it easier to amend the sex recorded on birth certificates. It removes a requirement on applicants to provide evidence of having undergone sex-reassignment procedures. The country’s parliament on Thursday voted unanimously to pass the legislation, titled the ‘Births, Deaths, Marriages and Relationship Registration Bill’. Once it comes into force, the new law will allow transgender, intersex, gender diverse, and takatapui (a Maori word for LGBT) people to declare their sex on the basis of how they identify. Although the provision to self-identify sex on birth certificates was introduced in 2018, applicants still had to prove they had undergone sex-reassignment surgery or other medical treatments to change their sex according to their gender identity. “Today is a proud day in Aotearoa’s history,” Internal Affairs Minister Jan Tinetti said, referring to New Zealand’s Maori name. “Parliament has voted in favour of inclusivity ...
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