First gender-neutral birth certificate issued in Argentina
An Argentine has obtained a birth certificate without a gender definition, for the very first time in the country since the Gender Identity Law passed in 2012.
The event took place in Mendoza province, some 1,100 kilometres west of the capital, after Gerónimo Carolina González Davesa filed an administrative request. González Davesa does not identify as male or female.
González Davesa, 32, was issued the document – from which all personal documents are derived – without any judicial intervention.
“There were no legal arguments to decline the request,” Enzo Rizzo, the director of the Civil Registry of Mendoza, told the local press. “We consulted with the governor and were able to grant the permission.”
According to a resolution from the regional government, the civil registry must issue new birth certificates in which a line “must be entered” to indicate the sex of an individual. This way the individual can request the sex designation to be omitted from any other personal document.
The Gender Identity Law establishes that “everyone has a right to determine their gender identity and to be treated and identified in accordance to it.” However, no civil registry had accepted the marker omission until now.
Even prior to the Gender Identity Law’s passage, Argentina has been considered a pioneer in Latin America for authorising same-sex marriage in 2010 and, two years later, recognising femicide as a crime committed against a woman or “a person who selfidentifies with a feminine gender identity.”