Last Friday, the Social Security Administration took a huge step forward by announcing that transgender individuals no longer require a record of gender reassignment surgery before being able to change their gender on their Social Security card. This policy change marks a huge step forward for transgender rights and also does away with the archaic assumption that all transgender individuals have gender reassignment surgery. As LGBT advocates have argued for years now, not all transgender individuals have surgery because it is very cost-prohibitive and because transgender identity is not reductive to whether one has undergone surgical procedures.

Instead, the SSA has chosen a more inclusive policy that requires a person show a passport or birth certificate that reflects their accurate gender, or a physician’s certification confirming the person has received clinical treatment for gender transition. These are the same requirements that the U.S. State Department and the Veterans Health Administration have also adapted in the last three years.

While this seems like a small victory, it certainly is a huge step forward in allowing transgender individuals to change their gender marker across all of their identifying documents, starting at the federal level and down to their state IDs. This change will also likely minimize complications when trying to access public benefits such as Medicaid, Supplemental Security Income, and others if their gender is aligned across documents.

In addition, the SSA also issued new culturally competent guidelines for interviewing transgender people, including using an individual’s preferred gender pronoun, keeping information confidential, and treating them with respect and dignity.

Now, if only we could ensure transgender individuals are protected at the state level, we’d be gold.

This year Housing Works has spearheaded a campaign urging the New York Senate to vote on GENDA in 2013. Please visit the Housing Works passgendanow.org webpage to sign the Change.org petition, share it through your social media networks, and encourage your friends and family to do the same.

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