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passport office
First off, please keep in mind that I'm posting this from a legal standpoint. It does not reflect my personal points of view
I certainly sympathize with what you are going through, but as the laws and policies of the U.S. Government reads, you will need to meet certain guidelines in order to make the changes. With you being a naturalized citizen, only complicates things. Let me explain:
Your "LEGAL GENDER" is going to be determined by your birth certificate or naturalization certificate. You can only change this by having some kind of "genital surgery" or, changing your "sex". The status quo in governmet seems to be your genitals determine your sex, male or female. In some cases, such as marriage, etc. some states will go by chromosomes. Confused??
The U.S. Dept. of State basically recognizes gender by what's written on your birth certiticate (or in your case, your naturalized citizenship certificate). In order to change your passport gender disignation, you must show them that you have had a "sex change" operation, SRS, GRS, etc...
To comply, you MUST produce a certified letter from a surgeon confirming such surgery was performed (male to female or female to male). You can get a one year temporary passport listing your "preferred gender" provided that you have certain letters from physicians indicating that you are about to have the surgery. Letters from doctors indicating your hormonal, or chromosomes such as XXY will not be recgonized. (You will need to change your birth certificate first). Are you following me so far? lol.
To change your birth certificate, you must follow the laws of the state (or country) from where you were born. i.e.- if you were born in California, you must follow California state law procedures on changing your birth certificate.
It gets worse. You were born in another country. This means in order for you to change your naturalization certificate, you must file a petition to change your birth certificate from the country in which you were born in first. Then you can change your naturaliztion certificate. But to change your passport, you must provide a birth certificate showing your "preferred gender" OR show that you have had a sex change.
So...if you want to change your passport, you will need to change your birth certificate if you don't want to have the surgery. But to change your birth certificate, most states (and countries) will require you to have a "sex change". Though, some states and countries (like the Phillipines) don't recognize sex changes, so keep that in mind. You may not be able to change your birth certificate.
For intersex births, you may be able to change your birth certificate, if you have enough documentation from physicians showing your intersex condition and the doctor (or doctors) will certify that you have one of the many listed conditions that the courts recognize. You will need to file a petition through the courts, producing these documents. In some cases, judges WILL subpoena the doctors to testify on your behalf that all is true and correct.
I hope I didn't confuse the heck out of you.
Best Wishes,
K. Nalani
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