New Zealand’s parliament unanimously passed a ‘Self-ID Bill’ yesterday, to make it easier for folks to update their birth certificates to better reflect their gender identity, following four years of debates, and transmisogyny by cisgender women.

"This bill recognises that those who need to amend their birth certificate can do so, that the courts do not have the right to make that choice for them, that parents do not have that right, that cis-gender people who don't even know them or care about them do not have that right,” Green Party MP Dr Elizabeth Kerekere said.

The law will remove the invasive barrier of having to provide proof of gender-affirming medical care by going to the Family Court.

“The first comprehensive national survey of the health and wellbeing of trans and non-binary people was conducted in 2018. It reported that five out of six participants, or 83%, did not have the correct gender marker on their New Zealand birth certificate,” Guardian reports.

However, the rights granted by the law still aren’t accessible to refugees, asylum seekers, and recent migrants, Dr. Kerekere noted.

In the next 18 months, the logistics of the bills will be combed out. New Zealanders with birth certificates from different countries wouldn’t be able to self-determine till further work is done to make the law accessible.