In the U.S., you can change your gender on your passport without changing it on your birth certificate. In Mexico, your birth certificate is the root document for everything. To get a passport or driver’s license, you need your birth certificate.

Fortunately for me, I was born in Mexico City, where we have new laws, more progressive, let’s say. If you’re born in any other Mexican state, it’s very complicated, nearly impossible. Often, people establish residency in Mexico City. What you do is sue the Civil Registry. Not to change your birth certificate, but to correct it. You sue them, basically saying, “You made a mistake, a clerical error.”

You needed a lawyer and two medical experts to testify that you were under their care for a year, that you completed your transition. I had to write a life history for the doctors. Then the doctors produced a report, and you had a medical exam and a hormonal profile.

Then you went to a building in the center of the city. I was expecting a courtroom like you have here. No, it was literally in a hallway with desks. A judge, a secretary. I was dressed up, wearing a tie. The first doctor came in, and the judge began to interrogate him. Tell us about the patient. Is this true that he or she is this or that? In theory, there is no specific requirement for medical transition, but they wanted to know everything: Has the patient had hormones? Has the patient had a double mastectomy? Has the patient had a hysterectomy? They focused a lot on sterility, could I have biological children. What they didn’t ask is whether or not I had ovaries. Whether I froze my eggs or not. That doesn’t fit in their heads.

The judge asked: “What is gender? Is it something you feel, or something you perceive?” And I’m like, he’s playing philosopher? Fifty minutes with the first doctor, and only 10 minutes with the second. They didn’t care about him. And me, what do you think they asked me?

Nothing.

I never even opened my mouth. They never asked if I even wanted this. They printed the papers, and I signed them.

That was two years ago. The legal proc­ess I went through in Mexico City, over a year with lawyers and doctors, is obsolete today. Changing your gender on your birth certificate is just an administrative matter now. That’s the new law that passed last year.

My California driver’s license, my Mexican passport, my Mexican birth certificate, these things all changed. Now, do these documents perfectly reflect my identity or not? That’s another question.