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New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is facing down an unexpected lawsuit this week. The vocal LGBTQ supporter is named in a Lambda Legal lawsuit filed Tuesday on behalf of a transgender teen who says the state won’t let him update his birth certificate to reflect his gender transition.
The boy, identified as M.H.W., has hit Cuomo and New York with a federal lawsuit, claiming that the state’s practice of refusing amended birth certificates to trans minors violates the constitution. The 14-year-old has updated all of his other identity documents, according to his parents, Jennifer L. Wingard and Michael Sicinski.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
“As parents, we only want what is best for our son. Our son is a boy, but New York State refuses to recognize him as such.” said Wingard, M.H.W.’s mother, in a statement. “So we were shocked when the only remaining roadblock came from New York State.”
According to the family’s complaint, the trouble started in October 2019, when the began updating their son’s identity documents. While the family now lives in Houston, Texas, and has obtained updated IDs there, M.H.W. was born in Ithaca, New York. The state informed Wingard and Sicinski that they do not update birth certificates for transgender minors.
Transgender adults can update their birth certificates in New York. Cisgender youth who have an error on their certificates can also get amended certificates. The fact that transgender minors can’t violates the plaintiff’s right to equal protection and free speech under the constitution, his lawyers argue. It’s also out of step with a number of states that do allow minors update their gender markers as well as New York City, Lambda Legal points out.
The complaint concludes that the policy is illogical, and could subject the 14-year-old to serious danger.
“This policy categorically barring transgender minors from correcting the gender
marker on their birth certificates subjects transgender minors to invasions of privacy, prejudice, discrimination, humiliation, harassment, stigma, and even violence and establishes a barrier to transgender minors’ full engagement in society,” the complaints states.
The LGBTQ pride flag raised over the State Capitol for the first time in New York State history. Happy #Pride! pic.twitter.com/Dzb51miAul
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) June 5, 2019
The policy stands in stark contrast with Cuomo’s stated goals. The governor wrote last June that he was fully committed to ending anti-LGBTQ laws still on the books in New York. (His press office did not respond to requests for comment from NewNowNext on whether the state will fight the lawsuit.)
Meanwhile, the teen says he worries about what will happen if his birth certificate is not corrected swiftly.
“I’m a teenager in high school living in Texas,” he said in a statement. “Having an inaccurate birth certificate can cause the disclosure of my transgender status when I enroll in college classes or when I get my driver’s license, and expose me to possible harm.”
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