Non-binary and gender non-conforming people in Puerto Rico now be able to select 'X' as gender marker on birth certificates

Puerto Rico’s Supreme Court has ruled that non-binary and gender non-conforming Puerto Ricans can select 'X' as gender marker on birth certificates - a big win for the six non-binary Puerto Ricans who filed the case.

Speaking after the ruling, which allows for the representation of those who identify outside of the gender binary, Pedro Julio Serrano, activist and president of the LGBTQ+ Federation of Puerto Rico, said: “At a time when non-binary, gender nonconforming and trans communities are under attack, this historic decision opens the door to the full recognition of their dignity. 

“We celebrate a milestone that allows the equality promised in the Constitution to be put in practice,” they added. 

The court found that while the government might have a legitimate interest in maintaining an accurate record of each citizen’s sex assigned at birth, lawyers for the government “failed to articulate why this particular interest is furthered by treating nonbinary individuals differently than binary individuals.”

“Puerto Rico’s current Birth Certificate Policy is not supported by a rational basis, and therefore violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment,” the justices wrote in their 19-page decision.

A federal court in 2018 ordered Puerto Rico to permit transgender individuals to change their gender markers, but nonbinary individuals were left unable to accurately reflect their gender identity on official records. 

“Their request is simple: to be permitted to have a gender marker on their birth certificate that reflects their true gender identity, like everyone else,” the justices wrote of the plaintiffs in their decision. 

“Specifically, Plaintiffs request the Court to order the Demographic Registry of Puerto Rico to modify its application to amend a Puerto Rican birth certificate, to include an option to change one’s gender marker to an ‘X.’