## Facts

- The petitioner, born in New York City in 1945, was recorded as male on the original birth certificate.
- After longstanding gender dysphoria, the petitioner underwent gender-affirming (sex-reassignment) surgery in 1975 and thereafter lived as a woman.
- The petitioner obtained a court-ordered legal name change to a feminine name.
- The U.S. Department of State issued the petitioner a passport listing sex as female based on proof of surgery and the legal name change.
- The petitioner applied to the New York City Department of Health’s Bureau of Vital Records for a new birth certificate showing the new name and listing sex as female.
- The Department issued an amended birth certificate reflecting the new name but omitted any sex designation, leaving the sex field blank under an internal policy adopted after a 1971 Health Code amendment.
- The petitioner commenced a special proceeding seeking an order compelling the Director of Vital Records to issue a certificate either listing sex as female or, alternatively, noting that a sex change had occurred.

## Issues

1. Whether the Director of Vital Records could be compelled to issue an amended birth certificate changing the sex designation from male (as recorded at birth) to female after gender-affirming surgery.
2. Whether the Director could be compelled to issue an amended birth certificate that includes a notation stating that a sex change or sex-reassignment procedure occurred.
3. Whether the Department’s policy of issuing an amended certificate with a corrected name while omitting any sex designation was lawful under the applicable Health Code authority.

## Decision

- The court denied the petition.
- The court refused to compel issuance of a birth certificate changing the sex designation to female.
- The court also refused to compel issuance of a certificate that affirmatively noted a sex change or sex-reassignment procedure.
- The court left in place the Department’s practice of issuing an amended certificate reflecting the new legal name while omitting any sex designation.

## Legal Principles

- A birth certificate is treated principally as a record of facts as recorded at the time of birth; later developments do not automatically warrant alteration of those historical entries absent clear legal authorization.
- Where a regulation authorizes issuance of an amended certificate but does not expressly require changing the sex entry or adding a sex-change notation, the agency retains discretion as to the form of the amendment.
- Courts will not order an agency to implement a specific policy choice through mandamus-like relief without a clear, nondiscretionary statutory duty, and will generally defer to reasonable administrative implementation within delegated authority.

## Conclusion

The court held that, absent an explicit legal requirement to change or annotate the sex designation on birth records following gender-affirming surgery, the Director of Vital Records could not be compelled to do so, and the Department’s approach of reissuing an amended certificate with the new name but no sex designation was permitted.


Anonymous v. Mellon, 91 Misc. 2d 375 (Sup. Ct. N.Y. Cnty. 1977)