An OB-GYN specialist countered the claims of Lagalab LGBT network President Naomi Fontanos that the gender being included on birth certificates are only guesses that could be proven wrong in the future.
In a post, Dr. Ryan Borja Capitulo who introduced himself as a member of the LGBTQ+ community said that he’s a specialist when it comes to OB-GYN and also a specialist in Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology.
According to him, the gender of the baby should be based on anatomy and genetics. It contradicted the thoughts of Fontanos who said that the gender should not be based on the body of the newborn.
He also pointed out that as an expert, he’s not trying to guess the gender of the child.
“Batid ko ang KATOTOHANAN ng kasarian ng sanggol ayon sa “anatomy” at “genetics”! Naniniwala ako sa KATOTOHANAN ng kasarian base sa kaalamang SIYENTIPIKO at MEDIKAL,” Capitulo said.
“Kapag pumipirma ako sa Birth Certificate, sigurado akong TAMA at HINDI HULA ang nakalagay na kasarian!” he added.
Capitulo is a known critic of the SOGIE bill which being pushed by Fontanos and other members of the LGBTQA+ community.
During the Senate hearing on the SOGIE Bill, Fontanos said that her gender was only wrongly guessed during her birth because she was labeled on her birth certificate as a male, while in reality, she’s a transwoman.
“In our case as trans people, as a transwoman, I was assigned male at birth. It was incorrect, it was just a guess and it was a wrong guess. gender assignment is predictive, it is not final,” Fontanos said.
She said that in some first world countries like Australia and New Zealand, they’re already following international standards on how they would prevent the baby’s gender being wrongly labeled on their documents like birth certificate.
Fontanos explained that the said countries are already allowing parents to put “x” or “double dash” which means that they’re not trying to assume the gender of their child.
The Sogie bill advocate also said that putting x or a double dash to the official documents of an individual will help other people communicating with them to ask first how should they be addressed.