Florida Clarifies Birth Certificate Amendment Policy

The Florida Department of Health has clarified its internal policies to describe what people who have completed sex reassignment surgery must do in order to amend their Florida birth certificates.

The policy clarification was based on objective, non-political criteria, including the need to update the policy to reflect current medical knowledge and practice with regard to transsexual persons.

To request an amendment to a Florida birth certificate, the registrant (the person filing to amend their birth certificate), must provide the Florida Department of Health with the following information:

A copy of the court order granting a change of name pursuant to Florida Statute, Section 68.07, or a substantially similar statute from another state.

Once the name change is recorded, the registrant must file a notarized affidavit from the physician who performed the sex reassignment surgery. (The Department of Health recommends using a form such as DH
430, Affidavit of Amendment to Certificate of Live Birth). The physician must include his/her medical license number in the affidavit.

Along with the physician's affidavit, the registrant must submit medical records indicating that the patient has completed sex reassignment in accordance with appropriate medical procedures and that they are now considered to be a member of the new gender for all medical purposes. The medical records must be signed by the physician who performed the sex reassignment surgery.

The required amendment fee (currently $20) must be paid and the record will then be amended in accordance with Florida law.

In Florida, once the birth certificate is amended, a
new birth certificate with the correct name and gender
will be issued. The amended birth certificate will say
"amended" and will note the date of amendment, but it
will not indicate what item or items were amended or
why.

As for the original birth certificate, the department of vital statistics will attach the supporting documentation (name change, affidavits, etc.) to the original birth certificate and file it away (the record is not sealed). The good news, however, is that the original is ONLY available to the applicant or the applicant's parents -- in other words, the general public will NOT have access to the original.

A complete Florida Name Change/Birth Certificate Amendment kit, which will include the required forms as well as a sample letter from a physician, will soon be posted on NCLR's website at http://www.nclrights.org and on Equality Florida's website at http://www.eqfl.org.

For more information, please contact:

Karen Doering
NCLR Staff Attorney
Consultant to Equality Florida
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The National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) is a national law firm dedicated to advocating for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals and their families. NCLR is working in partnership with Equality Florida's Legal Advocacy Project to protect the rights of Florida's LGBT community by seeking fairness and equal justice under the law.