Gender: Documents should reflect true anatomy

Re: “Washington birth certificates might get Gender X option,” (TNT, 9/13).

The purpose of legal documents is not to boost self-esteem but to provide essential information to medical personnel, law enforcement officials, emergency responders, etc.

Surgery and hormone treatments may change a person’s outward appearance, but they don’t change his or her anatomy. Males still have proportionately bigger bones, arteries and internal organs. In a medical emergency, a female patient could be injured or killed if an unsuspecting EMT treated her as a male.

Confirmation of biological gender is equally important in forensics. Consider the case of David Corak, who vanished on a camping trip in June 1968. His skeletal remains were finally identified after a relative recognized his forensic portrait.

If Corak had changed his gender on his legal documents, his remains might still be in a freezer somewhere. Furthermore, in criminal investigations, those XY and XX chromosomes can make or break a case.

Finally, as far as pronouns go, using “they” to refer to an individual is totally confusing. It’s bad grammar and really bad writing. Nobody has the right to screw up medical treatments, legal investigations or the English language because this is what a tiny minority “would like to see.”

This story was originally published September 26, 2017 at 5:33 PM with the headline "Gender: Documents should reflect true anatomy."