US lawmakers mock gender reassignment
A bill which would have made it easier for people who have undergone gender reassignment to get new birth certificate has been treated with ridicule by Illinois representatives.
The state’s House of Representatives discussed the bill yesterday, and the comments of several members were accused of “serious insensitivity.”
The state of Illinois already allows for new birth certificates to be issued to people who undergo gender reassignment surgery in the US.
The new bill aimed to extend that to people who have undergone surgery outside the country or who have undergone hormone treatment to change sex. It was defeated by 32 to 78 votes.
A Republican Representative Bill Black, said:
“Maybe you went somewhere and a voodoo doctor said you were now a man, where you had been a woman.
“I’ve often thought that perhaps I was a female trapped in a male body. I know – it scares me, too,” he added, according to the Daily Herald.
“I wish I didn’t have to shave every day. I’d like to have softer skin.”
Another Republican asked if deer were going to be issued with new documents after they are neutered.
The Democrat who was overseeing the debate then asked in a high-pitched feminine voice if everyone had voted. He later denied he was trying to be offensive.
A spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, who were involved in drafting the bill, commented:
“For it to be demeaned by public officials doesn’t speak very well of the public officials.”
