50 minors in Tijuana apply to change gender identity on birth certificates

SAN DIEGO ( Border Report ) — Fifty minors in Tijuana have applied to change their gender classification on their birth certificates after the state of Baja California rewrote its civil code to allow individuals to make the switch with parental consent last month.

“We’ve had about three weeks and have seen approximately 50 minors in the process of filing documentation to make the change on their birth certificates,” said Maria Teresita Díaz Estrada, head of the city’s LGBT Civil Association.

She also said state offices finally have the proper forms to hand out to anyone wanting to make the change in gender on their birth certificates.

“People were getting denied the right because workers didn’t have the documents or were not aware of the new laws, now it takes 10 minutes to print out the application and get it signed by the parents.”

Díaz Estrada said parents are also interviewed and are made aware of how the civil code is written to make sure they know what they are signing.

“This is going to happen with each and every case,” she said. “There’s still clarification to be made, there’s a lot of misinformation out there about the process for the families.”

The first official change of gender identification in the state of Baja California happened last week in the city of Rosarito, a coastal community 20 miles south of Tijuana.

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