Mexico City Paves the Way for Transgender People to Legally Establish Change Nadia Sanders - GPJ Mexico
go to original December 8, 2014

Mario Sánchez and Diana Laura Guerrero are a transgender couple in Mexico City. Their birth certificates indicated that Sánchez was born a girl and Guerrero a boy. After the Legislative Assembly of the federal district of Mexico City authorized the option of changing one’s gender identity in 2008, the two were able to change their birth certificates and marry. (Global Press)

MEXICO CITY — Victoria Volkóva has big black eyes, long, shiny, straight hair and a slender white face. At 22, she offers tutorials on professional makeup techniques on her YouTube channel, a practice that has earned her nationwide fame.

Although born with the body of a boy, Volkóva has known she is essentially a girl since age 5.

“I don’t think of myself as a trans,” Volkóva says. “I consider myself a woman because I am a girl.”

Volkóva plans to change the gender listed on her birth certificate now that the district’s legislative body has approved a reform that makes that process much faster and cheaper.

Right now, the legal and professional costs – psychological diagnosis and medical tests – of gender reassignment can run from 80,000 to 100,000 pesos ($6,000 to $8,000), and the judicial process can take six months to a year.

Thanks to the new reform, Volkóva soon will be able to register her gender change by paying just 58 pesos ($4). She will receive her new birth certificate within five days after submitting the application.

On Nov. 13, the Legislative Assembly of the federal district approved a bill that eliminates the requirement that gender reassignment applicants present their case at a court hearing. The legislation replaces the judicial proceeding with an administrative process, making gender reassignment faster and cheaper.

Transgender people in Mexico City will be able to benefit from the legislation 90 days after the Mexico City government promulgates it in the “Gaceta Oficial,” or Official Gazette.

The federal district is the only place in Mexico where a transgender person can change the gender on his or her birth certificate.

Read the rest at GPJ Mexico

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