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WEST VIRGINIA
Statute: W Va Code 16-5-24 (2003)
Admin Code: W Va Code St R 64-32-6 (2004)
West Virginia will change both name and sex, and will issue an amended birth certificate with the old name struck over and the new name and sex typed in the margin.
You will need an original or dirtied copy of the court order for your name change, and an original letter from you SRS surgeon.
ADDITIONAL AUTHORITY:
You will not find reference to this on Westlaw or Lexis as it is purely an in-house program-it is not codified, but on the other hand our handling of this has never been challenged except by someone who wanted us to change his birth certificate from M to F before sex reassignment surgery had been completed. We said NO, he sued us, and the judge handed down the decision that the certificate is not to be changed until the surgery has been completed. He made the change, we changed the birth certificate. This office follows procedure put in place by one of my predecessors. It is not correct that we require a court order to change the sex on the birth certificate although we would certainly accept that as long as we also knew that sex reassignment surgery had been completed. What we require is a notarized statement from the physician stating that the surgery has been completed. How to change the person’s name on the certificate is codified and does require a court order. Normally, that is not a problem as the cases we have encountered in the past involve individuals who have already had a court ordered name change as they had already assumed the “other outward identity even though they were physically of the other sex. Face it, sex reassignment is not an overnight process and the person is probably living as the other sex for quite some time before the surgery is complete. We sought to codify this process with a requirement for a court order, as that is in accordance with the Model State Vital Statistics Regulation, 1992 Revision, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Section 21(d) of that model states that, “Upon receipt of a certified copy of an order of (a court of competent jurisdiction) indicating the sex of the individual born in this state has been changed by surgical procedure whether such individual’s name has been changed, the certificate of birth of such individual shall be amended as prescribed by regulation. “ The larger bill that included that language did not pass in the last legislative session. I would also like to point out that this is a very rare procedure for our office-probably no more than a handful in my years here.
CONTACT INFORMATION:
Gary L. Thompson
State Registrar of Vital Statistics
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