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Puerto Rico Supreme Court recognizes ‘X' as third gender for birth certificates in landmark decision
Puerto Rico's Supreme Court has mandated that the government include an 'X' gender marker on birth certificates in a ruling issued on Monday. A group of nonbinary Puerto Ricans filed the case, and the ruling allows for the representation of those who identify outside of the gender binary.
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'Puerto Rico's current Birth Certificate Policy is not supported by a rational basis, and therefore violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment,' the justices wrote in their 19-page decision.
The court found that while the government might have a legitimate interest in maintaining an accurate record of each citizen's sex assigned at birth, lawyers for the government 'failed to articulate why this particular interest is furthered by treating nonbinary individuals differently than binary individuals.'
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A federal court in 2018 ordered Puerto Rico to permit transgender individuals to change their gender markers, but nonbinary individuals were left unable to accurately reflect their gender identity on official records. Six nonbinary plaintiffs filed suit in court, and the court on Monday ruled in their favor.
'Their request is simple: to be permitted to have a gender marker on their birth certificate that reflects their true gender identity, like everyone else,' the justices wrote of the plaintiffs in their decision. 'Specifically, Plaintiffs request the Court to order the Demographic Registry of Puerto Rico to modify its application to amend a Puerto Rican birth certificate, to include an option to change one's gender marker to an 'X.''
The justices found the government's current birth certificate gender identification policy discriminatory and that there was no rational reason to deny the plaintiff's request.
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'The current Birth Certificate Policy of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico arbitrarily distinguishes between binary and nonbinary individuals and subjects nonbinary individuals to disfavored treatment, without any justification for doing so,' the justices concluded in their ruling. 'In such cases, it is the duty of the federal courts to intervene, to guarantee the equal protection of all persons under the law.'
Puerto Rico's Republican Governor Jenniffer González Colón indicated that she would consult with government lawyers before determining her future course of action.
Puerto Rico Representative Jorge 'Georgie' Navarro Suárez announced he was introducing a non-binding resolution condemning the ruling.
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'The Federal Court's ruling represents a challenge to the administrative and social stability of Puerto Rico,' Navarro Suárez said in a statement announcing the resolution. 'While we fully respect human dignity and rights, we firmly believe that traditional gender identification based on male and female provides essential clarity and consistency in the administrative processes of the Demographic Registry.'
Navarro Suárez is a member of the New Progressive Party (PNP), which advocates for statehood with the U.S. Both of Navarro Suárez's brothers were recently arrested on federal corruption charges. Edgardo Navarro Suárez and Ricardo Luis Suárez were arrested in April and charged with financial fraud and money laundering of federal funds meant for relief during the global economic shutdown. Prosecutors claim the two brothers and a third man attempted to bribe a bank official to help facilitate over $2 million in allegedly bogus COVID-19 relief funds.
