As of Thursday, May 31, the number of requests by trans people to change the name before the State and on their cedula (national identity card), according to their self-perceived gender, reached 151.
This procedure, which has been claimed for years by the trans population, will be possible after the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) announced on May 17 a reform in the Civil Status Regulation.
Luis Bolaños, director of the Civil Registry, explained that since the decision is recent, they are preparing the system to include the annotation in accordance with the change of regulation.
“We already have everything, I think next week we should be approving a good part (of the applications),” said Bolaños.
The reform allows the changes to be made without the formalities, such as appearing before a judge. In addition, the “known as” is eliminated, from the cedula.
In 2010, The TSE had taken the first step in favor of the rights of the trans population, by allowing the photograph the cedula to be taken with a female or male image, according to the sex with which the person identified themselves.
The other measure that will be applied soon will be the disappearance of the annotation of the birth sex on the cedula, although this information will remain in the files of the Civil Registry.
In this way, the TSE complies with the Advisory Opinion of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, issued last January, in which it orders to recognize, without any discrimination, the rights of LGBTI persons.
Source (in Spanish): La Nacion
