My son was born and spent the first nine years of his life in Virginia as a girl. At the age of thirteen, after we have moved to Arizona, my son came out to us as transgender. As a family we have jumped through all the hoops: counseling with a psychologist with a specialty in LGBTQ youth, hormone therapy prescribed by an eminent physician at the Gender Management clinic at Phoenix Children's Hospital, consultation with a fertility specialist, consultation with the National Center for Transgender Equality to get advice changing his name and gender marker in two states, getting his name legally changed through the courts in Arizona, changing his name and gender marker with the Social Security Administration, and changing his name and gender marker on his Arizona Driver's License. 

When it came to changing his name and gender on his birth certificate issued by the Commonwealth of Virginia, everything came to a screeching halt. The judge assigned my son's case in the Richmond City Circuit Court, rejected our Petition for a Change of Sex based on this code. We were mistaken in thinking that a letter from my son's doctor stating that he is undergoing physical medical treatment to change his gender would be sufficient, but the judge rejected the petition noting Code 12VAC5-550-320 leaving me to assume that the fact that my 17-year-old son has not yet undergone gender reassignment surgery he is not worthy to have HIS birth certificate match his Social Security card, his Driver's License or himself.

Needless to say, I am extremely frustrated. We live over 2,200 miles away so it is not as if I can drive to the courthouse and appeal our case or contact my local representative. This discriminatory law written when my child was only a year old must be changed. Should he be penalized by a code that has not grown in sixteen years to reflect changed and still yet changing understanding of gender identity?  Should he decide that he never wants a full surgical procedure, does that mean he can never be fully regarded as male by the outside world because he happened to be born in the Commonwealth of Virginia?