World Association for Transgender Health - WPATH: Surgery No Longer Necessary As A condition For Identification

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 16, 2010 The Board of Directors of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), in the interest of the health and well-being of transgender and transsexual people world-wide, issued today, 16 June 2010, the following identity recognition statement: No person should have to undergo surgery or accept sterilization as a condition of identity recognition. If a sex marker is required on an identity document, that marker could recognize the person’s lived gender, regardless of reproductive capacity. The WPATH Board of Directors urges governments and other authoritative bodies to move to eliminate requirements for identity recognition that require surgical procedures. This statement has been posted on the WPATH website at www.wpath.org