It must be an election year. (Oh, who am I kidding? It’s always an election year these days.) Having apparently solved all of the other problems plaguing the Big Apple, Mayor Bill de Blasio took to the stump this weekend to announce that there would be a change to birth certificates issued by New York City. From now on, new parents won’t be bothered by any confusing questions about gender at the hospital after their new bundle of joy comes into the world. If their new baby is born with either a penis or a vagina but they’re still just not sure whether it’s a boy or a girl they can simply select an “x” in the gender box. Similarly, any adults who can’t quite figure out their own anatomy for themselves will be able to retroactively change to an “x” even if they haven’t had any “corrective” surgery. (Associated Press)

People born in New York City who do not identify their gender as either male or female would have the option of choosing a third category for their birth certificates under a new proposal.

Mayor Bill de Blasio and City Council Speaker Corey Johnson said the new category of “X” would be available through the proposal, which is expected to be introduced by Johnson on Thursday with public hearings to be held later this month.

Currently, if parents of a newborn do not want to identify a sex, they can say the sex of the child is undetermined or unknown. The “X” category would be something adults could choose for their own birth certificate.

If it passes, New York City would join California, Oregon and Washington in having the third category on birth certificates, while Washington, D.C. allows it on driver’s licenses.

Since June is Pride Month and plenty of New York Democrats are up for election again, this rather transparent ploy isn’t too hard to figure out. But it does lead to a couple of pressing questions. For one thing, you may be wondering what New York City is doing making changes to birth certificates. Doesn’t the state control that? In most places, that’s how it works, but this is New York so we’re… special. Enshrined in state law is a provision granting the city control of handling birth certificates in the five boroughs.

Of course, this provides an excellent way for someone to disappear from public records without going off the grid if they are dodging alimony payments or avoiding a restraining order taken out by their ex. When you combine the ability to change the gender on your ID with the fact that transgender Big Apple residents can also change their name without publishing it in the paper (as is required almost everywhere), you can vanish from most searches not done by a professional detective.

Do you think that might confuse some police officers if they were looking for a suspect and randomly pulled them over? It used to be that you couldn’t get a picture taken for your license without wearing your glasses if you needed them to drive. Knowing who people are is a rather critical factor in law enforcement, not to mention banking, real estate and most all other aspects of modern life. But now, thanks to social justice warrior policies and feckless politicians, you can just modify everything however you wish. Isn’t progress just amazing?