Your Papers Please.

Last week in the news was about Argentina issuing an ID card to a six year old trans-girl; however, this was just one occurrence of relaxing the rules on changing ID requirements.

Argentina Grants Lulu, 6-Year-Old Transgender Child, Female ID Card
The Huffington Post
By James Nichols
Posted: 10/10/2013

Argentina's government has granted a six-year-old transgender girl an ID that corresponds with her gender identity.

Late last month, government officials granted Lulu, who was born biologically male but reportedly dressed and identified as a female since she could talk, a female identification card under the country's Gender Identity Law, according to the International Business Times.

But also last week California passed a new law about changing your name on a birth certificate,

Transgender name changes made easier by new law
SF Gate
By Melody Gutierrez
Updated October 8, 2013

Sacramento --
The public and costly process for transgender people to legally change the name and gender on their California birth certificate will be streamlined under a law Gov. Jerry Brown signed Tuesday.
[…]
The process for changing a gender marker on a birth certificate will be an administrative process requiring a doctor's note indicating the person has undergone a gender transition.

But California was not the first to change the requirement for changing the gender marker…

Making it easier for transgender people to get new birth certificates
The District of Columbia Council passes the country's most liberal policy for updating birth certificates, one that transgender activists hope will become a nationwide model.
Los Angeles Time
August 05, 2013
By Alexei Koseff

Those obstacles are about to become history: Last month, the District of Columbia Council passed the country's most liberal policy for updating birth certificates, one that transgender activists hope will become a nationwide model. The mayor is expected to sign it Tuesday.
[…]
Those obstacles are about to become history: Last month, the District of Columbia Council passed the country's most liberal policy for updating birth certificates, one that transgender activists hope will become a nationwide model. The mayor is expected to sign it Tuesday.

And in June of this year, Oregon changed their law regarding birth certificates, according to the ACLU

With Gov. Kitzhaber's approval of HB 2093 yesterday, transgender people in Oregon will no longer have to show proof of surgery in order to change their birth certificates to accurately reflect their gender. Previously, Oregon law required surgery in order to update a birth certificate gender marker, even for those transgender people who did not need or want it, or were unable to access surgery for financial, medical, or other reasons.

Before that in 2012, Illinois reached a court agreement…

IDPH [Illinois Department of Public Health] issued new certificates to plaintiffs Lauren Grey, Victor Williams and Nicholas Guarino and released new rules that removed the genital surgery requirement.

When you think about the purpose of birth certificates there is no need to not change them and it places a burden on the person by not being able to change it. All the birth certificate does is prove that you are born here and gender is not important. Passports can now be changed without surgery and when you are starting a new job a passport is just as good as a birth certificate to prove US citizenship and since you can change your gender on your passport with just a letter from your doctor why can’t you do the same on your birth certificate?