WINNIPEG – Starting Monday, Manitobans will be able to change their sex designation on birth registrations and certificates without requiring proof of surgery.

Until now, Manitobans were forced to show proof of sex-re-assignment surgery with the province’s Vital Statistics Agency before changes could be made to birth documents.

But after consultations with health-care professionals and others, the NDP government decided such a requirement was out of step with modern society.

Instead, applicants will now only need to provide a statutory declaration of the change, along with a letter from a health-care professional.

"This is a very sensitive and personal issue for transgendered Manitobans seeking to change their identity documents, and we want to make the process as respectful and fair as possible," NDP cabinet minister Ron Lemieux said in a prepared statement.

"I’m proud that Manitoba is taking these important steps to make this process more fair and respectful, and align with human rights codes legislation."

The move was praised as an important step forward by Dr. Ian Whetter from the Klinic Community Health Centre.

"Having a sex marker on one’s identification that is mismatched with one’s appearance regularly puts transgender people at risk of mistreatment,” Whetter, who works in the trans-health program at Klinic, said.

"This process is a key step in supporting the safety of transgender individuals."

The Vital Statistics Agency will continue to work on additional amendments, including changing a sex designation certificate for Canadian citizens not born in Manitoba, Lemieux said.