I am Proudly the First in Colorado to get an Intersex Birth Certificate

Creating my own restitution.

My official intersex birth certificate.

On September 17, 2018, and after 15 months of persistence and jumping through many hoops, I finally did it! I proudly did it without a lawyer too. However, I did have my dear friend Sara Kelly Keenan helping me along the way. Sara Kelly Keenan was the first in the United States and in New York City to get an intersex birth certificate. Soon to follow second came Hida Viloria in New York City. Sara shocked me when she shared that they had only moved a city; that I had moved an entire state. I am glad I didn’t know that at the time, it might have intimidated me too much. All I knew is that I wanted my birth finally honored, and that error on my original birth certificate finally corrected. The error that led to much of my life suffering. I like to tell people I am creating my own restitution from being assigned wrong at birth.

How did I change my Birth Certificate to my true Biological Sex?

With the help of Sara Kelly Keenan, my medical records, my doctor, the board of ethics to my hospital, my gender therapists/councilors, my county courts, and my own letter writing, I finally persuaded Vital Statistics of Colorado to accept that my true biological sex is intersex and not a disorder or a syndrome. The first thing I did is find out what is necessary for a transgender person to change their birth certificate in my birth state. After finding out what is necessary, then I had to prove to them there is no surgery or hormone treatment to create intersex. You see, if you are transgender you have to prove you changed your sex with surgery or hormones. In the case of being born intersex, you now have to prove there is no surgery to create this, that you are born this way. It also required my having a doctor that agreed that my “intersex diagnosis”, or “intersex condition” was now to be considered my biological sex too.

The scariest part was going to a Florida court to get a certified letter proving I am biologically born intersex. I ended up being pleasantly surprised when the magistrate agreed after receiving my medical evidence and wrote me my certified letter to Colorado. I would like to shine a light on the birth unit supervisor in Colorado too. She was amazing, polite, and helpful from the beginning to the end. Although I will keep her name anonymous, I thank her dearly. The most frustrating time was when it was thrown to their legal team this June by the state registrar. However, in the end, with educating everyone we all settled the problems.

I do believe they were conflating my biological sex with my gender identity. You see, an intersex person can have any gender identity and have their biological sex intersex. My gender identity is nonconforming androgynous man, it is not intersex. Being that I was assigned female on my original birth certificate this made me appear very transgender. Some people match their biological sex. Like many intersex people born, I do not. With the helpful letters of explanation defining biological sex and gender identity from Sara Kelly Keenan, my counselor friend, and sexologist Kristi Overstreet Ph.D., they finally settled my case September 17th, 2018 and amended my birth certificate to intersex.

My Hope

Now, in Colorado, all intersex infants and adults will now have this option. I do hope this world quickly keeps evolving and all the information technology (IT) problems with a system that erases intersex from all forms. Right now in Colorado, if the rumors are correct, I do believe an intersex child is following in my foot tracks. I hope with all the attention I will be getting we find each other. Nothing is more beautiful than the hope that this intersex child is receiving self-determination over their own gender identity and that this keeps their intersex body whole and free from nonconsenting corrective genital surgeries.

Jacksonville TEDx Speaker

Born Intersex: We are Human!

I was a TEDx Jacksonville Speaker this October 20th, 2018. It went very well. Over one hundred hours of preparation. I was first in the third session, and last session that day. I am very proud to share that I receive the first standing ovation of the day. TEDx Jacksonville was amazing to work with. A priceless gift to me and to the intersex community. I was given an amazing platform to save intersex children from. Here is My Source Page for TEDx Jacksonville, 2018: “BORN INTERSEX, We are HUMAN!”

TEDxJacksonville speakers challenge the status quo. October 22, 2018. By Will Robinson

Here are 11 states that grant identity documents with non-binary gender markers

Educational Note: Sex does not equal Gender. Sex is either Endosex, Intersex or Altersex. All three of these can have any gender identity. Most news conflates SEX and GENDER as being the same thing when they are not the same thing, nor match, for millions of intersex, nonconforming, nonbinary, and transgender people.

Reporters who have shared my intersex birth certificate story:

them.: Colorado Is the First U.S. State to Issue an Intersex Birth Certificate: Anunnaki Ray Marquez is the first intersex person outside of NYC to obtain a medically accurate birth certificate. | BY MARY EMILY O’HARA | SEPTEMBER 20, 2018
The Denver Patch: ‘Intersex’ Birth Certificate Issued By The State Of Colorado Florida resident Anunnaki Ray Marquez wants to raise awareness about “unnecessary” childhood operations. | By Jean Lotus, Patch Staff | Sep 20, 2018 11:06 pm ET | Updated Sep 21, 2018, 12:08 am ET
Colorado Public Radio: Colorado Issues The State’s First Intersex Birth Certificate BY MICHAEL SAKAS | MICHAEL.SAKAS@CPR.ORG | SEP 21, 2018
Colorado Public Radio; My Radio Review: How Anunnaki Ray Marquez Fought For Their Intersex Birth Certificate, And Why Others May Not Have To In The Future BY JOELLA BAUMANN | JOELLA.BAUMANN@CPR.ORG SEP 27, 2018
Gay Star News: Colorado is the first state to issue an intersex birth certificate Anunnaki Ray Marquez is now the first intersex American outside of NYC to have a medically accurate birth certificate| Rafaella Gunz | Sep 23, 2018.
LGBTQ Nation: Quote: “Anunnaki Marquez identifies as a gender non-conforming androgynous gay man. You’ll understand when you read this story”: Colorado makes history as the 1st state issuing intersex birth certificates. | By By Sarah Toce | Sunday, September 23, 2018
egoCity LGBT Community Network: Colorado, primer estado en emitir certificado de nacimiento intersexual Por egocity – 20 septiembre, 2018
ADVOCATE: Colorado Becomes First State to Not Assign Gender on Birth Certificate The state amended an intersex person’s birth certificate to match their identity. BY ARIEL SOBEL SEPTEMBER 25 2018 3:20 PM EDT
LGBT News: Colorado Not to Assign Gender on Birth Certificates September 26, 2018 My note regarding the above title: Colorado Birth Certificates are not about gender identity, they are about biological sex.
Channel 9 News in Colorado: Colorado issues intersex birth certificate Correction note: I am 50 years old.
The Guardian: ‘Erasure of an entire group’: intersex people fear Trump anti-trans memo Their lives would be at odds with the scientifically erroneous definitions of sex and gender that Trump is pursuing. By Sam Levin October 25, 2018. Note: I connected most of these people to Sam Levin to create this article. I didn’t want it to be only about me. Together we are stronger.
UPI: More states allowing gender-neutral birth certificates, IDs | ByJean Lotus | August 15, 2019. Note: Sara Kelly Keenan and I had both talked to Jean Lotus about not conflating sex with gender, and she still does in this article. Even misquoting me, and their editors refusing to make corrections. For one the title is horrible. My birth certificate is about my sex being intersex, not “gender-neutral”. Second, intersex people can be men, women, both or neither in their gender. In stead she makes error saying: “male, female, both and neither”. An intersex person’s sex is intersex, they could never be male or female. Oh, well, Sara and I tried to get it right. Reporters can be so horrible when they do not listen with care.

You may also want to visit:

The United Nations’ Intersex Fact Sheet

Intersex Fertility by Intersex born Dr. Cary G. Costello

My Educational Blogs that will help you understand:

Trying to belong to a binary-only world: My Biological Sex, My Legal Sex, My Gender Identity, My Gender Expression, and My Sexual Orientation.

My blog: Seven Names for the SAME thing: Penis, Phallus, Clitoris, Phalloclitoris, Micropenis, Microphalus, and Clitoromegaly.

Cultural Dysphoria: Stop conflating biological sex with gender identity.

My thoughts on Facebook September 25th, 2018:

My thoughts for the day and my life experience.

A birth certificate only documents our medically provable biological sex and does NOT always reflect our true gender identity.

When my birth certificate was “female” my gender identity did not match, and guess what? Now that it is “intersex” my gender identity still does not match. I am ok with this!

My biological sex is legally recognized as intersex now, and my gender identity is a nonconforming androgynous man. My gender identity is NOT intersex. Only my physical being is intersex.

I also do not have gender dysphoria. I have never felt like I was in the wrong body. I have always felt like this world did not understand my existence though. I would like to call this Cultural Dysphoria instead.

If 1.7% of the world is born intersex, and with the world population at 7.6 billion, this would mean 129 million people are born intersex and have the potential of being assigned WRONG on their birth certificates.

Intersex and Transgender people are not the problems when we exist in the hundreds of millions. Instead, this male and female genital obsessed binary system, that erases human diversity, is the obvious problem.

Conflating biological sex with gender identity has to stop. They are not one and the same thing, and never will be.

To respect everyone, I think it is time to simply document a “live birth” and give all humans the right to claim their own gender identity while giving the option to change during one lifetime.