I'm writing in support of the petition to change requirements for how change the gender marker on birth certificates. To require evidence of surgery ignores the reality that many transgender individuals have no wish to have sugery done, and yet still want thier birth certificate to reflect the identity they have affirmed; others simply cannot afford to have surgery, which is very costly and typically not covered by insurance plans. In all of these ways, the current requirement is discriminatory in the ways that it demands specifice forms of documentation. Instead, it makes sense to require only evidence of an ongoing and committed social (not necessarily physical) transition, which can be tesitifed to by a range of trained professionals.