SPRINGFIELD – On the same day President Donald Trump directed the U.S. military to steer policy away from facilitating personnel that prefer sexual identities other than those indicated by their DNA, Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner signed into law a measure that makes it easier to change Illinois birth certificates to reflect adult gender choices.
Trump's directive reinstates the ban on military service for transgender individuals that was lifted during the Obama Administration. It also stops military expenses on sexual reassignment surgery, except for those who have already begun medical procedures, and implements criteria for whether transgender individuals already in the military should be allowed to continue to serve.
Rauner – also a Republican – evidently agrees with LGBTQ advocates that the genitals a baby is born with should not determine the gender permanently noted on his or her certificate of birth. The legislation he signed Friday will allow sexual identification at birth to be changed if a person requests such. And if the person's name has been legally changed, the birth certificate may also reflect the name change from the one his or her parents designated at the time of his or her birth.
Before now, an individual born in Illinois, with an existing Illinois birth certificate, could submit an Application for Gender Reassignment to the Department requesting to have the gender changed on his or her own birth certificate after undergoing an operation(s) having the effect of reflecting, enhancing, changing, reassigning or otherwise affecting gender.
Every individual had to complete the Affidavit for a New Birth Certificate After Completion of Gender Reassignment in its entirety and have it notarized. The applicant had to be of legal age (or the parent/co-parent or guardian if not of legal age) to complete the form.
Observers say it will be interesting to see what happens when a person born in Illinois decides to change his birth sexual identification and then pursue enlistment in U.S. military service. Others say changing sexual identification to be different than a person's DNA could bring extra difficulties concerning law enforcement and criminal investigations.
